Something in the Way You Are
by brittga24
Summary: Paige couldn't figure out why there were butterflies in her stomach or why she kept avoiding Emily's gaze. To her, it felt like Emily had the potential to see right through her wall she had so carefully built up. And for once, in such a long time, it seemed like her wall was shaky and on the verge of crumbling down.
1. Chapter 1

_**This is kind of my take of the whole Paige and Emily relationship, some of it follows the character development we see in the actual show, but for a good chunk of it, it's an alternate universe. The focus is Paily. I didn't really want to spread the writing out too thin if I included all the Liars, but there will probably be cameos here and there. I will state again that it is a different spin on their relationship, but it made more sense to me to piece their story together like this. Please review, only because if I get enough feedback encouraging me to write more, I will, if it looks like it's not peaking interest, I may scrap it. But seriously, I'd love good or bad, -uh I mean "constructive" ;) criticisms. Please. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy! 3**_

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In a panic, because she was already running thirty minutes late for her first swim practice on the varsity team, Paige rounded the corner of the hallway at such a force that her body slammed directly into the closed door of the girl's locker room. Her halfway zipped-up swim duffle slipped off her shoulder and emptied most of its contents onto the floor.

_"Shit, just great, this day could not get any worse." _She spit out under her breath.

She crouched to the ground and began to grab and simultaneously stuff her belongings back into her bag. Zipping her bag up completely, this time, she stood up. Outstretching her hand to grasp the door handle she paused before pulling open the door. Taking a few seconds to compose herself, she told herself to breathe and calm down. She actually had a valid reason as to why she was so late. She was also preparing herself for the possibility that someone might have heard the commotion that came from the other side of the door and decided she needed to look like she was clueless as to what it might have been. The last thing she needed was to embarrass herself even more than she already will be in the next five minutes when she had to confront the coach about her tardiness. Gripping the handle harder, to the point where her knuckles turned white, she took one last deep breath and tugged the door open.

_**A few hours prior...**_

"Dad, I reminded you that I had my first practice for varsity swim this morning before you left for work."

"Paige, I'm sorry it slipped my mind. And now I'm caught up in a business deal that I can't break away from just so I can drive you to practice. Can you call your Mom, I'm sure she'll have an easier time getting away from work to get you there. Look, I gotta go. Things are heating up I have to step back in before this falls through. Swim like the superstar I know you are. Bye."

Paige's Dad hung up on her before she could get another word in. She looked down at her phone's screen and a few seconds later the backlight faded and it became black. Her reflection stared back at her now. The look of irritation was apparent on her face, no doubt. This wouldn't be the first time her dad got so caught up in work that he threw her to the wayside.

She unlocked her phone and began dialing her mom's work number. It rang four times before her mom finally picked up.

"Hello, this is Elizabeth speaking."

"Hey, mom, dad forgot about my swim practice and now I am in need of a ride to the school, can you leave work early today? Please, please, please. It's my first practice on the varsity team, I'm the only sophomore this year and I can't be late or el—"

"Paige, calm down hun, yes I can drive you just tell me what time."

"I need to be there at four, so come get me at three-thirty?" "Okay, see you then, love you, bye."

Paige's mom hung up. Her parents had a bad habit of hanging up on her before she could conclude her side of the conversation, but she was used to it by now.

Paige managed to get a spot on the varsity swim team. Try-outs had been held during that last week of winter break and the first practice was the last Saturday evening of break before school was back in session the following Monday.

Paige happened to make some of her personal best times during that grueling week of conditioning and swimming. She always seemed to perform her best when it really mattered. A natural love for the sport as well as constant pressure from her dad to be the best gave her motivation to keep up with her intense workouts and desire to win. Besides making top grades in school, swimming seemed to be the only thing that kept her dad remotely interested in her. He was always too wrapped up in his work.

As a new transfer student, she couldn't believe she had been the only sophomore to make the varsity team this year. It had certainly been her goal when tryouts started, but the competition was tough, especially with some of the upperclassmen.

She always seemed to out-swim people her own age, but she had figured girls a year or two older would have more experience and training. As it turned out, she finally found her niche. She was almost an equal with some of these girls in regards to her swimming ability. Granted, she was a few years younger than most of them so that got automatically got her noticed. That, and again, the fact the she was a new face, someone no one knew. But honestly, it was attention she didn't want. Sure, she would do anything for her dad to notice her a little more, but she wasn't yearning for the attention of others around her. She preferred to stay off the radar.

Paige was always avoiding unwanted attention from others. Something that was going to be hard enough as it was already, because now her new situation was that she was a new transfer who made the varsity swim team as a sophomore, and she was also starting her new school enrolled in advanced placement classes that threw her into classes with upperclassman. This automatically got her attention from teachers and students in her classes. To avoid being made fun of or thought of as an overachiever she kept her head down and did what was expected of her, nothing more, nothing less. So far in her past experiences, it proved to work for her. Her dad seemed to be happy with her achievements at school and now that she had made the varsity team, he even had something to brag about to his co-workers.

It had been an hour since Paige had talked to her mom and she was beginning to get antsy when the time crept closer to 3:30 and there was still no sign of her mom. It was now 3:28 and she was already half tempted to just hop on her bike and get herself to practice. But she knew for a fact that she wouldn't make it in time, her new school was about a 45 minute bike ride from her house. She didn't want to risk it.

Just as she was about to call her mom for the fifth time she heard the garage door open. _Ah, thank god, finally. _She thought to herself. Quickly grabbing her swim duffle, she rushed through the kitchen and managed to knock her hip bone on the corner of the kitchen counter.

"Ooouucchhh. Damn counter, fuck. Ow ow ow." She growled.

_That's definitely going to bruise. _She thought.

As she made her way out through the laundry room to the garage door she heard her mom turning the door knob.

"Mom, what are you doing, we're going to be late, I called you like a hundred times, let's go."

"Good grief Paige, it's so nice to see you too."

"Mom, I'm sorry but I seriously don't want to be late it's already 3:40, why didn't you pick up your phone?"

"Well, I'm sorry, I forgot to charge my cell last night, and it died just before I hopped in the car."

Paige threw her bag in the back seat and quickly slid into the passenger seat. She was already anxious about practice and her mom running a little late was not helping the situation. If they had left at the original time of 3:30 Paige would have been early by about ten minutes. Now she'd be lucky to get there on time at all. Paige's mom started the car and drove towards the direction of the high school. Paige took the opportunity to plug in her headphones, turn on her iPod, and tune out the world for a bit. She liked to take some time to herself and get lost in her own thoughts. It allowed her to unwind and re-group a bit.

The powers that be though obviously didn't want Paige making it to practice that day, because ten minutes down the road a loud pop startled her from her daydream. She yanked out her right earphone and knew immediately that their car just got a flat.

"Are you kidding me? Mom, this has to be a joke. Please tell me we didn't just get a flat tire."

"If I did that I'd be lying, hun."

Paige took a look at her wrist watch she had exactly ten minutes to get to practice or she'd be late.

"Any chance a tow truck can get here in less than oh, I don't know **_NOW_**?"

"Paige relax, I'll talk to the coach myself if I have to, car trouble happens, I'm sure she'll understand. Sit tight. I'm going to call a tow, but you will probably be half an hour late to practice, sorry kiddo."

Paige was beyond irritated. She couldn't believe all the bad luck she was having today. Her mom had accurately estimated just how late Paige was going to be late to practice. By the time the truck came, secured their car to the tow, and dropped Paige and her mom off at the nearest repair place it was already twenty minutes into practice. It didn't take long to actually fix the flat, but by the time they left the shop it was half past four. Paige jumped out of the car before her mom could come to a complete stop. She didn't even think to tell her mom what time she needed to get picked up later, she'd worry about that later. Paige was not about to lose her spot on the team the very first day of practice.

The locker room door screeched open almost as if it was announcing Paige's entrance. To her relief, the locker room was empty. _Good, they've probably already started to swim laps,_ she thought to herself. She quickly found an empty locker numbered 24 and shoved her duffle inside. She slipped her feet out of her running shoes leaving them just under the bench in front of her locker. Stripping off her running pants and hoodie, she quickly threw them onto the floor on top of her shoes in a crumbled ball.

She could care less about being neat right now. Pulling her swim cap over her head, while tucking the remainder of her hair up into it, she started to head for the door that led out to the pool. Just as she had thought, the rest of the team had already started their laps. She approached the coach cautiously, not sure what to expect when she greeted her.

"Hi, coach, I um, I'm sorry I'm so late for practice, I—uh well you see my mom's car got a flat on the way here, it took a bit of time to fix and I'm sorry I'm so late to the first practice."

"Yeah, I know. McCullers, right?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Your mom called a bit ago to let me know you'd be late. Don't worry about it; just don't make it a regular thing. I'd say by now, you're behind about fifteen laps. The rest of the team only really started to swim twenty minutes ago. You missed out on the team introductions as well as my rules and expectation, but I'll just have one of the captains go over everything with you on your own time. Now get going, you're already behind enough as it is. I expect you to stay after to make up for what you missed. Lucky for you most of this practice was a meet-and-greet."

"Right, uh, okay thanks coach and sure thing I'll make up whatever I have to and more. I won't let you down."

_Wow, could you have sounded anymore like a suck up. Good lord._

Shaking her head, Paige walked her way down the side of the pool until she found a lane that only had one other girl swimming up and down it. She preferred not to be too crowded, plus it was easier to skirt by just one other body than a few at a time if she needed pass someone up. She waited for the other girl to turn off the wall and start back in the opposite direction before she dove in.

The moment her fingertips touched the water and her hands began to cut through the water she felt like she could finally relax and forget about everything that happened in her day. To Paige's surprise it was harder for her to catch up to the girl that was in her same lane than she was expecting. By now she figured she'd have passed her up and added a few body lengths between them. For once though, it appeared as though Paige had met her match and she was going to accept the challenge.

She kicked her legs faster and pushed her way through the water more determined to pass this girl up. Paige was slowly closing the gap between her and her counterpart. She couldn't believe how much energy this other girl still had this close to the end of practice. Paige had just started her laps; this girl must have already been halfway finished with her workout.

Just as Paige was almost shoulder to shoulder with this girl an exaggerated whistle blow echoed throughout the pool enclosure. This signaled the end of practice. Well, the end of practice for everyone else, Paige still owed at least thirty more laps. But she would complete them on her own time. After practice was over, she would stay behind to get the rest in. The last thing she wanted was to get behind on her workouts and she wanted to prove to coach she was taking her position on the team seriously.

Paige let up on her stroke and came to a steady glide through the water allowing the girl who was sharing her lane to make it to the wall first. Paige floated towards the wall but came to a stand, in the 5 foot deep water, about three feet away from this mystery girl.

Paige started to pull off her goggles, and curiously focused her gaze on the back of this girls head.

_What was she all about and who was she?_ She thought to herself.

The other girl, who was considerably tanner than Paige, yanked off her goggles, keeping them in her left hand and pulled herself out of the pool. She was now tugging on the front of her swim cap. Paige couldn't help but stare and admire how toned her arms were and how never ending her legs seemed to be. The moment this girl pulled off her cap, it released lustrous raven colored hair that settled just below her shoulder blades.

Everything this girl did had Paige hypnotized. Even just the way she ran her right hand through her hair and eventually rested it on her hip.

The other girl suddenly turned her head and looked over her shoulder back at Paige, who was still standing in the pool and had obviously been staring at her. Embarrassed Paige turned a faint shade of pink and looked down at the water as she made her way closer to the wall.

The other girl had turned her whole body towards Paige by now, bent down by the edge of the pool and offered a hand to help Paige out.

"Here let me help you." The other girl said with a soft, welcoming smile on her face.

"Oh uh no thanks, I got it." Paige replied almost immediately, then realizing that she probably came off as being a bit rude to the other girl, she added, "I uh, I'd hate to accidently pull you back into the pool with me, ha. I have a tendency to be a bit clumsy. And often others find themselves victims of my own clumsiness. And it can get ugly." Paige cracked an awkward crooked smile, and then returned to a straight more serious face when she realized she probably looked like a big idiot in front of this girl.

_That was a good save, right?_ Paige wondered to herself.

The other girl softly chuckled at Paige's attempt at a joke, and Paige couldn't tell if she was just being polite or actually thought what she said was funny. The girl had slowly retracted her hand and rested her elbow on her knee. She was now studying Paige with a look of interest.

"Oh wow, yeah I can imagine how that could get quite ugly, but in this case, it wouldn't be the first time I was pulled into a pool and lucky for you, I can be a pretty forgiving person", responded the other girl looking down at Paige, who was still standing in the pool.

Paige nervously smiled back and said "Well, good to know. It's not unlikely you'll become one of my unsuspecting victims one of these days. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

_God, shut up Paige, you sound so dumb right now._ She thought.

Paige realized she was the only person still in the pool at this point so she grabbed onto the wall of the pool with her right hand and placed her goggles down on the tile by the left side of where the girl was now kneeling. Paige then pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the pool, leaving her feet dipped in the water. For some reason she was really nervous, but having her feet submerged in the water helped ease this feeling. But only just the tiniest bit.

"Warning noted. You're Paige right?" The girl asked.

Paige looked at her a bit puzzled and replied, "Yeah, I'm Paige, how'd you know?"

"Well, you're really the only one the team I don't already know. And I didn't see you earlier during the first part of practice; coach mentioned you'd be late. I just put two and two together."

"Oh, right. Yeah, I'm sure I made a great impression on the rest of the team for my _impeccable_ timing." Paige breathed out sarcastically.

"Ha don't worry about it; I don't think anyone really noticed. By the way, I noticed you're a really fast swimmer. I don't think I've ever had anyone keep up with me out there before." Emily gazed out towards the pool.

"Oh, ha thanks. Yeah I've been swimming ever since I can remember. Sorry, I uh, I don't really remember you from try-outs. But my memory can be spotty at times. What's your name?" Paige asked.

"Oh gosh, duh, I'm sorry I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Emily. Emily Fields. I'm one of the team captains. And actually you wouldn't remember me because I wasn't there."

Paige grew curious as to why a girl who didn't even go to try-outs was filling a captain's position on the team and without thinking she blurted out, "Why?"

"Um well, I had to fly out to California for a funeral. Coach was really understanding about it. I was on varsity swim last year and I do pretty well for myself in the water, I guess I solidified a spot on the team just from last year's season. I'm a senior this year and I guess coach decided to make me one of the captains if you were wondering about that too." Emily winked at Paige.

Paige blushed; she was embarrassed and felt awful about snooping into Emily's personal life. _Emily_, a girl she had known for less than ten minutes.

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that and I shouldn't have asked you that, it was nosey of me. My curiosity can get the best of me sometimes. Beware of that too." Paige replied.

Emily smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's not something I haven't already had to explain to people. And as one of the captains, I'd love it if you felt like you could ask me or talk to me about anything. That's what I'm here for."

"Oh well, alright, I'll have to keep that in mind, thanks." Paige replied, while bringing her gaze down to look at her feet that were distorted because they were still in the water.

Paige couldn't figure out why there were butterflies in her stomach or why she kept avoiding Emily's gaze. To her, it felt like Emily had the potential to see right through her wall she had so carefully built up. And for once, in such a long time, it seemed like her wall was shaky and on the verge of crumbling down.

Paige didn't like it one bit. She wouldn't allow it after such a long time of telling herself what she felt wasn't possible and that she just had a brief moment of confusion. She was straight. It wasn't that she was attracted to girls; maybe she just looked at them sometimes. But she was sure it was only because she was comparing herself to them, nothing more. All those confusing thoughts and feelings about girls had long ago been put to rest, until today, the day she met Emily Fields.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello my lovely readers! Thank you so much for all the positive feedback. It's really encouraging. Sorry for the delay in updating. I've been in the process of traveling back home from a vacation. But lucky for you all, this meant I had an initial 5 hour plane ride, followed by a 2 hour plane ride, followed by a 4 hour car ride.. which means I had lots of time to write some more as well as brainstorm ideas for future chapters. Any further reviews are appreciated. Positive or negative, I'm all ears (or eyes in this case.) If you have questions about why I chose to include something the way I did or curious as to where an idea came from just ask! I'm super friendly and love the interaction.**

**I've got all these ideas I'm excited about and my "puzzle" pieces are slowly coming together. Pay attention to the small details. I love small details. ;) Alright well here are a few responses to some reviews I received and then on to the story! **

**Gloria: I'm glad you like the slight age difference I put between them. I wasn't sure how people would react to it, but I feel like it makes sense for where I'm taking their story. Thank you so much for such kind things. It's really encouraging. **

**HOOBASTOO: I'm super happy you love it so far! I received enough feedback telling me to keep going, so I am!**

**dayabieberxo: YES. I'm glad you like the idea. And YES, we've most certainly all been there! I think it's very relate-able. **

**lemonfi1: Happy to see you enjoyed it. :)**

**Psyro: Thank you. I hope this next chapter makes you just as excited as the first.**

**CiCi: I'm glad it put a smile on your face. I'm glad you like Paige's mannerisms. I agree she most definitely is "the mostly awkward redhead that belittles herself." I hope Emily's POV in this chapter doesn't disappoint. There will be MORE to come. I really wasn't sure if I was going to include her point of view, but realized almost soon after writing the first chapter, that it would help with the character building.. and yes, they are two years apart in this fic.**

**lina-sama28: I'm happy to hear you loved it. Here's some more. ;)**

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Paige was almost one hundred percent positive that Emily wasn't even gay and she could say for certain that she was one hundred percent sure that she, herself, wasn't gay. So in reality, it didn't matter what Paige thought, and it didn't matter if Emily was into girls or guys.

Paige had already been down that road. When she found herself at that intersection forcing herself to finally make a decision with which way she was going, she eventually decided that she was definitely going straight. She was straight and there would be no more questioning it.

A lack of experience with guys did not mean she might be gay. She had made a point to stay focused on school and swimming. She didn't have time or energy for messing around with boys, boys who she could hardly stand to be around, because of their lack of maturity and fixation on getting into any girl's pants.

There was never any _spark_ between her and any of the past guys she had briefly dated. None of those relationships had lasted longer than a few weeks so it never got serious. In a way, she never allowed it to. She figured that the right one just hadn't come along yet because if he had, she was sure she wouldn't be single right now and she was sure she wouldn't be questioning her sexuality.

So, why, after all this time of figuring it all out was she beginning to question being straight again? She didn't want to admit that she already knew the answer to her question. But if anyone could have read her mind at that exact moment, the one thing that was on her mind was Emily Fields. Emily Fields was making Paige question again whether she was really straight or not.

Emily broke Paige's deep concentration on her thoughts.

"Well, I think we should probably head to the locker room, we normally meet up at the end of our practices to talk about how it went, and also announce anything that needs to be put out to the team."

"Oh yeah, right. Okay." Paige replied.

Emily stood up from her kneeling position and waited patiently as Paige picked her goggles up off the tile and came to a standing position as well. Paige was now directly face to face with Emily. Just then, she noticed Emily was actually shorter than her by a couple inches and for a few seconds got lost in Emily's mahogany colored brown eyes.

Emily held Paige's gaze with slight curiosity.

With expectant eyes and a tender smile she asked, "Something on your mind?"

"Oh uh, no. Nope. I uh—ha. No." Paige's face grew hot with embarrassment as she looked straight ahead to the bleachers that were located on the other side of the pool next to the locker room.

_God, Paige, get yourself together. You probably just looked like a major creep. Avoid her eyes, they're making you act like a fool._

The last thing she wanted was to weird Emily out. But at the same time she was thinking maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if she did. Maybe Emily would lose interest in her and make it easier for Paige to avoid any future interactions.

Emily seemed to accept Paige's response because she didn't question any further.

The two girls walked along the width of the pool side by side. They were so close that Emily's forearm lightly grazed Paige's. Paige's breath caught in her throat. She literally felt like she had just been zapped by a small charge of electricity.

_Woah, what was that, what just happened? That felt oddly weird yet amazing at the same time. It was nice. -Wait, stop it. Knock it off. Don't stand so close, that can't happen again. In fact, don't let it happen again._

Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Paige was sure Emily could hear her increased heart-rate because it was deafening in her own ears.

She quickly took a small side-step to the left but did it in such a manner that Emily didn't even really notice the added space between the two of them.

"So, Paige." Emily started.

"MMhhmm."

"You're new here, to the school, right? Because I'm pretty sure I would have noticed you before today if you'd been attending Rosewood."

"Uh yeah, actually I just transferred here. I went to Jefferson for my freshman year. I ended up doing some home-schooling over the summer through this most recent fall term. I finished out my fall classes with a private tutor and was able to transfer here, no big deal."

Paige didn't know why Emily made her feel so nervous; she was now looking down at her hands and fidgeting with her goggle straps.

"Now it's my turn to be nosey, if you'll allow. Jefferson has one of the best swim programs around. Why'd you transfer here to Rosewood? And why do home-schooling for such a short period of time? Sorry, I don't intend to pry. I'm just curious."

"Ummm, let's just say that I needed a fresh start somewhere new and leave it at that. Also, the home-schooling was my parent's idea. I suppose it helped me get ahead in school, so it wasn't so bad." Paige stated with furrowed eyebrows, hoping Emily wouldn't ask for more elaboration.

Paige wasn't comfortable enough with Emily to really disclose why she had transferred from her old school. She didn't want the reason why she had transferred to get around to others and have the same problem follow her to her new school. Sacrificing a well structured swim program that also had a history of winning and producing top athletes was worth it to get her out of that hell hole of a situation.

She had put up with being bullied for too long, and she was still dealing with the affects of it to this day. The bullying got so bad that it eventually led to self-destructive tendencies. She wasn't proud of it and she wasn't about to relapse.

Besides, when she left Jefferson, her dad wanted to make sure she'd stay in top swimming condition so he made sure to hire a private swim coach that had worked with her the last five months. She learned all her regimented workouts from him, and was now able to use what she had learned to keep in shape and stay on top of her swimming. Ultimately, her dad wanted her to get a full-ride swim scholarship to a top university, and right now, it was just about the only thing she had to look forward to.

Even through all her most recent heartaches, Paige always had swimming to fall back onto. The water had ways of healing her soul.

"Okay, fair enough. Well, like I mentioned earlier, I can already see you're a fast swimmer. No denying that. It was nice to have someone else out there with me. That's actually kind of why I was alone in the lane; everyone on the team prefers to leave me to my own lane because I tend to lap anyone sharing with me."

Paige didn't really know what to say. But she automatically felt the urge to apologize.

"Oh, um. I-I'm sorry I didn't know. I'll be sure to pick a different lane next time."

"No you must have misunderstood me; it was nice swimming with someone that could keep up. I don't really have any other competition on the team. Looks like I've met it today." Emily smiled and glanced over at Paige.

Paige caught Emily's eyes with her own and again averted her gaze back down to her hands that were still holding her goggles.

Paige looked back up. "Oh, yeah? Um, thanks. I was actually kind of thinking the same thing when I was about to pass you up."

"Ha, _ABOUT _to pass me up, that's funny because from my point of view I was still a good few strokes ahead of you. You weren't going to catch me that easily." Emily answered while lightly nudging Paige's shoulder.

Trying not to read too much into it Paige argued, "Yeah, well the whistle saved you because I'd have had you passed by the next turn around. And whelp, I guess we'll never really know who would have come out on top, huh?"

"Well you know what that means right?" Emily began.

Paige had a confused look plastered on her face, not really sure where Emily was going to go with her statement.

"We need a redo. Race each other, see who wins. It'll be fun. Winner gets bragging rights and the loser will have to accompany the winner to an outing of the winner's choice. The loser also reserves the right to cry themselves to sleep that night in shame."

"Ha, well I don't know about _YOU_, but I don't cry. My tear ducts are non-existent."

"So it's a deal?" Emily questioned with a hopeful smile on her face.

"Oh, right. Umm.. HHmm. I don't know. Can I think on it?"

Paige really didn't want to interact with Emily anymore then she had to. She could already tell this could be headed down a likely path of probably becoming friends. And Paige didn't think she could handle that at this point.

"Afraid you won't be able to beat me?"

"Ha _no_. I just, -I need to think about it. If anything I'm already feeling bad for you because I know there's not a snowball's chance in hell you'll win; yet, you seem to be under the false notion that you can and you will." Paige joked.

"Ooh, ho. _OUCH._ That stung a little. Alright, fair enough. No pressure. I totally understand if you're scared."

Emily was unknowingly making it _very_ hard for Paige to resist her charm.

"Ha, scared? Me? No. I'm not scared. You don't scare me."

Paige had technically told a white lie; she was absolutely scared of Emily. But she wasn't going to let Emily know that. Plus she wasn't even scared for normal reasons one might usually be scared of someone. Emily scared Paige because she was causing feelings and thoughts to resurface that Paige had fought so hard to bury.

"So it's a deal?" Emily asked again.

Paige laughed. She thought Emily was incredibly cute and her persistence was endearing. But just as soon as Paige had allowed herself to think these things of Emily, she shook her thoughts and responded with, "Wow, you sure are persistent."

"I like to get what I want when I can help it." Emily now had a smirk spread across her face; one that told Paige she wasn't going to give up that easily.

"And what exactly is it that you want?"

Emily was making it harder for Paige to keep her guard up and maintain boundaries. Paige already told herself that she was going to avoid spending too much time with Emily, and now Emily had practically already set them up for an outing if they really did end up racing each other. This meant alone time with Emily, and for Paige's own sake she would try to do everything in her ability to not let that happen.

Before Emily could answer Paige's question and before Paige could give Emily a final answer, another girl from the team ran up, grabbed Emily by the arm, and pulled her over towards bleachers that were just outside the locker room.

It was apparent to Paige that this girl was very excited about telling Emily something. But just as Emily was being dragged off she managed to catch Paige's eyes and smile apologetically. Paige threw her a forgiving smile in return.

By this point the girls had already wandered only a few feet away from the entrance to the locker room so Paige just decided to go inside. She was actually kind of relieved this other girl had interrupted their conversation. She was hoping Emily might just give up or forget about it. But somehow, she could tell this was probably wishful thinking.

^^^^^^^^^ Emily's POV

Emily was caught completely off guard, she couldn't even get a word out to Paige to talk further about possible plans or even say bye. But she figured she'd catch her before she left for the evening.

"Woah, geez Marni, what gives? You almost made me fall on my face." Emily stated.

"Oh please, I doubt you would have actually cared once I told you my news."

"This better be good, I was kind of in the middle of a conversation, with Paige, that you so rudely interrupted."

"Paige? Who's that? -Ooh wait. The new girl, right. Yeah, who cares, she's just a sophomore anyways."

Marni had a tendency to disregard other people's feelings and half the time she could care less if she came across as being rude. She lacked a complete filter when it came to blurting out things that were on her mind. Marni was blunt and most people that met her for the first time described her as a total bitch. It was something Emily was used to by now. While she didn't love this quality about Marni, they'd known each other since Emily started her first swim lessons around the age of five. Lessons eventually led to them being on their first competitive swim team together and here they were now swimming on the varsity swim team their senior year of high school.

"Marni, I care. But whatever, you've got my full attention now, better use it wisely. What did you so badly need to tell me?"

"Well, you know Cole, from the guys varsity swim?

"Of course I do, you practically live and breathe Cole Jacobs. If you aren't mentioning him at least ten times on a daily basis, something isn't right."

"Ha, right. And oh please, exaggerate much? I do _not_ obsess about him that much."

"Well we can agree to disagree. Please spill this important news. We need to get back in the locker room."

"Okay, okay. Well, Cole is having a _HUGE_, like super huge, party. We're talking probably over a few hundred people. His parents are going out of town next Friday so he's throwing a party at his parent's lake house."

"Marni, you pulled me away from a conversation I was in the middle of to tell me about a party that's happening in six days? Do you realize there was plenty of time between now and then to inform me of this earth shattering news?"

"Wow, well when you put it that way I guess th—no I don't care about how many days away the party is. You act as if you don't already know I'm an insensitive person. This _is_ big news. I may finally get my chance to have my way with him. And then he'll have no choice but to want more. I mean can you imagine? I can totally already picture us being voted prom king and queen. It'll be perfect."

"Well before you start planning out your wedding and picking the names of all your children, you may want to consider the fact that he _is_ still dating Rachel."

"Oh please, you think I didn't already consider this? Besides, if you were paying any attention to what I said, you would have heard that _THIS_ party is what will get him to notice me, realize how big of a bimbo Rachel is, dump her, and be with me. It's brilliant."

"Wow, Marni. Really? You're going to be _THAT_ girl. Super classy of you. Well, thank you so very much for this very enlightening conversation. I think what I've taken away from it is that you are completely fine with slutting it up in attempt to get a guy who's already in a _committed_ relationship, who happens to be having a _HUGE_ party next Friday. Six days from now. Correct me if I'm wrong." Emily said so matter-of-factly.

Marni looked at Emily with face that made it obvious she was processing what Emily had just said.

"Uh, nope. You summarized it really well I thought. And awwwhhh you _WERE_ paying attention. I'm so glad. That makes me feel so loved."

At that moment both girls broke into laughter. Their conversations often went exactly like this. And Emily loved how straightforward she could be with Marni. There wasn't one thing she couldn't say to her face even if it came off as a bit harsh. Marni never took offense and Emily had learned not to take too much of what Marni said seriously. Their odd friendship worked and half the time Emily didn't even understand it.

"I don't know what to do with you sometimes." Emily stated.

"Just tell me you'll come with me to the party. Please?"

"Fine. Whatever. I don't think I could miss this for the world. It may just be the most entertaining thing I'll see all week long. Don't disappoint."

"That's my girl!" Marni shouted excitedly while jumping up and down.

"Okay, okay. Let's get to the locker room. We're already late enough as it is. I bet we just missed everything coach put out."

But really, all Emily was able to think about was if she'd already missed her chance to conclude her conversation with Paige.


	3. Chapter 3

**I got a little ahead of myself and posted this without any word from me. Yeah, I know you are here to read the story not exactly hear from me, but I wanted to say that I'm so thankful for all the follows and favorites I've received as well as the reviews.**

**They are VERY much appreciated, and honestly without the reviews, I don't think I'd have as much motivation to keep writing. I write because I like to entertain others, feedback lets me know you want me to keep going!**

**So THANK YOU again to you all, and THANK YOU VERY much for the reviews. 3**

**Enjoy this next chapter!**

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Paige made her way over to the locker she had placed her belongings in earlier. She hung her goggles on the inside hook of the locker while grabbing her swim duffle and placing it on the ground. She unzipped it so she could grab her towel and wrapped the towel around her torso, then tucked the end corner under her arm so it would stay in place.

Picking her phone up she sent a quick text to her mom telling her that she still had the rest of her workout to get in so that she'd probably be another hour or so before she'd be ready to be picked up.

She placed her phone back into her bag and took a seat on the bench that was located just in front of her locker. At this point she figured it would make more sense to take her swim cap off while she waited for the coach to dismiss the rest of the team for the night, so she did, and held it in her hands.

She could see through the office door window from where she was sitting that Coach Fulton was in her office on the phone. She then noticed that the rest of the girls on the team were in the process of showering and changing back into their street clothes.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the pool-side locker room door swing open and two other bodies joined the chaos that was taking place in the girl's locker room. Lots of laughter filled the air, gossip was being spread like wildfire, and articles of clothing were being tossed around left and right.

When she allowed her gaze to shift to the open door she then realized that one of the two people who had just walked in was Emily, and the other was the girl that had pulled her away desperately needing to tell her something.

At that moment Emily caught Paige's stare and smiled sweetly in her direction. Paige didn't know what to do so she immediately looked down towards the ground at her feet.

_Aw, crap. She just caught me looking at her. _

At this point she was praying Emily wouldn't come over and try to talk to her again. She still didn't know what she was going to say to her. She was trying to come up with an excuse, _ANY_ excuse, to tell Emily that would get her out of Emily's proposed deal. She hadn't agreed to it yet, but she had a feeling Emily wouldn't take just plain no for an answer.

Paige glanced back up and noticed Emily was in the office with the coach appearing to be having a quick discussion, because the coach was still holding the phone to her ear while covering the microphone with her other hand. Emily nodded in agreement with whatever it was and turned to exit the office.

Paige looked away to avoid making more eye contact with Emily, then she heard, "Okay ladies, listen up."

She recognized Emily's voice immediately and brought her head up to see where she was talking from. Emily was now standing on top of a bench located towards the doorway that led out to the hall. Paige saw that her hair was now pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head and she had a pair of baggy sweat pants pulled on over her swimsuit.

Paige couldn't help but notice how attractive Emily was without even trying and she hated herself for thinking it.

"Coach Fulton is a bit held up on the phone so she asked me to make the announcements for her as well as read off the locker assignments. I also need to hand out the team contact list and a calendar for the season that includes practices and meet dates. Everyone needs a copy before they leave here today." Emily held up a stack of papers in her hands to show what she was talking about and asked a couple of the girls closest to her to pass them out.

"Coach wanted me to tell you all that the locker assignments were completely random so no putting up a fight if you find yourself not located next to your best friend. She couldn't care less. Alright, so I'll just go down the list."

Emily started listing off the locker assignments which were followed by some words of disappoint and some of excitement by several of the girls on the team. When she finally got to Paige's name, to Paige's surprise, she was assigned to number 24. The locker she randomly threw her belongings into when she was in a rush to get into the pool.

_Sweet, looks like I don't have to move my things._

But also to Paige's surprise she heard Emily then say, "And it looks like I have number 25."

_That HAS to be a mistake, did I hear her correctly? Does she have the locker right next to me? I mean, she didn't say it very loud, so maybe I misheard her._

"Alright, so make sure you leave today with that contact list and the schedule. Other than that, Coach Fulton said good practice, have a restful day off tomorrow, and show up ready to work hard Monday evening. And oh yeah, everyone, this is Paige McCullers, she couldn't make it to the first half of practice, she is actually a new transfer from Jefferson so make sure you introduce yourselves to her and make her feel welcome to the team."

_Oh god, she totally just singled me out. _

Everyone's eyes were now on Paige, she couldn't feel anymore embarrassed by this unwanted attention. She automatically felt like she was being judged. And she was pretty sure everyone already knew she was the only sophomore on the team. Her face grew hot and she managed to spit out a "Hey," while throwing in an awkward wave.

_Great._ _That wasn't awkward at all…_

Some of the girls said hello in return, some smiled, and a few looked as if they were glaring at her. She looked down and brought her attention to her swim cap that she had scrunched up into a ball in the middle of her right fist. Easing up on her grip and flattening out her hand, she let the cap smooth out a bit, but it didn't look like it would return to its original form that easily.

"Okay, so everyone save travels back to your houses tonight, and see ya Monday after school at four o'clock sharp. If you have any questions come see me or shoot me a phone call, text, email, whatever." Emily finished.

Emily hopped down from the bench she had been standing on and walked back towards the office.

Paige took this opportunity to get out of the locker room as fast as possible and get back to her workout. She quickly stood up from the bench, unwrapped her towel and draped it over her locker door, grabbed her goggles from the hook, and walked with a purpose out of the locker room.

^^^^^Emily's POV

Emily knocked twice on Coach Fulton's door before entering her office and waited for a hand signal that told her she could come in. Coach was still on the phone and from Emily understood it was related to a scheduling conflict with the pool and when the team could use it next week.

She placed the leftover papers, which were returned to her after everyone had grabbed their copies, in the file cabinet on the side of Coach Fulton's desk. She waved a small goodbye to her, and walked back out into the locker room while quietly shutting the door behind her.

She scanned the room with her eyes for any signs of Paige. By this point most everyone had already left for the evening, so it didn't take long to notice that while she didn't actually see Paige, she did however see all of Paige's belongings were still by her locker.

Curious as to why Paige's things were still here, yet there was no sign of Paige herself, she made her way through the locker room to see if she might hear a shower being used or maybe see if Paige was back by the sink area.

No such luck. The next idea that had popped into her head was to go back out to the pool and see if she might find Paige there. Somehow she could see Paige being the type to get an extra practice in or make up for what she missed because she arrived late.

Emily pulled open the door and to her pleasant surprise she saw Paige almost immediately. A smile spread across Emily's face as she watched Paige effortlessly glide through the water. She made it look too easy. To Emily it looked like Paige belonged in the water, almost as if she was born to swim.

Emily couldn't take her eyes off of her. There was something about the way Paige swam that had her completely mesmerized. She felt as if she could watch Paige swim laps for the next several hours and be completely content. She was in awe watching each perfectly formed stroke pull Paige through that liquid barrier.

She watched as Paige's legs kicked without falter and propelled herself to the wall where she executed an almost perfect push off from it. Emily noted this was probably the one thing Paige needed to work on because other than that, she was damn near close to being a perfect swimmer. Even if her turn could be improved, the force with which Paige had coming off the wall was so powerful it made up for the flawed technique.

_Wow. I could watch her swim all day._

Emily continued to watch Paige complete another five or so laps before she decided to walk over to where Paige was. She realized at this point that Paige was so engrossed in her workout, that she'd never notice Emily standing by the edge of the wall at the end of Paige's lane.

_HHhmmm what should I do. I need to get her attention somehow._

Emily stripped off her sweat pants, threw them into a ball on the tile behind her and let her hair down, only to pull it back up into a neater bun that sat at the back of her head. She was now one lane to the left of Paige. Standing on a starting block, she was in the ready position to dive into the water just as soon as Paige had made her push off from the wall.

Paige was approaching and Emily would dive in any second now. She was trying to time it just right so that the moment Paige's feet left the wall; Emily's would leave the dive block.

Paige rounded downwards into her turn and pushed off the wall, at this exact moment Emily gripped the dive block with her hands and pushed off with her feet while pulling with her hands in one steady motion. She tucked her head between her arms and entered the pool effortlessly.

She would have preferred to have her swim cap on and goggles as well, but this was an impromptu swim. Besides, chlorine didn't bother her eyes after so many years of swimming; she just wanted Paige's attention and she was going to get it.

^^^^^^Paige's POV

Just as Paige had pushed off the wall, starting her tenth lap, she noticed someone dove into the lane next to her. She'd been so lost in her own calming thoughts that she almost didn't notice. Initially, she was going to ignore the intruder that broke her from her concentration, but as she turned her head to her left so see who it was, she was surprised to see it was Emily. Emily was the intruder who was now swimming perfectly in sync with her.

_No way, what is she doing? I hope she doesn't think this will be that race she was talking about earlier. I didn't agree to anything._

Just having Emily next to her threw Paige into a bit of a panic. Not a bad panic, a good one, if that was even possible. Emily gave her an adrenaline rush. It was a rush unlike one she had ever experienced before. And it felt good.

Sure, she technically got boosts of adrenaline before any of her races. All the buildup of anticipation beforehand and then, when it was finally her time to shoot off the block, it gave her that extra driving force that she needed along with her well formed technique to win her races.

This rush that she was experiencing was a completely different feeling and Paige couldn't put her finger on it.

Paige shook her Emily thoughts and attempted to shake her feelings, but both were proving to be very difficult for her. She pumped her legs harder, kicked her feet faster and sped up her stroke too. She needed to break away from Emily. Put distance between them. This needed to happen for Paige's own sake.

It seemed to be working. Emily was no longer in Paige's field of vision. Paige was glad her efforts were working.

_Maybe she'll get tired of chasing me and leave me to finish my workout. _

But, of course, as soon as she thought it, Emily caught up and was now neck-in-neck with Paige again.

_Why doesn't she just give up? _

Paige had already been swimming for quite some time by that point, and she was just about at the end of her energy reserves. Her body was beginning to feel fatigued and she knew she should stop soon. But she didn't want Emily to gain the upper hand.

Paige continued to push herself; she pulled ahead of Emily by the tiniest bit only to feel a sudden cramp in her right thigh. The pinch she felt threw her off guard and caused her to slow her stroke and allow Emily to pull ahead completely.

Paige let up and came to a halt in the water. She attempted to tread water in place where she stopped, but there was an immense feeling of tightness now in her thigh. She didn't even want to move her leg. But part of the problem was that she couldn't. She grabbed hold of the white pool lane divider to her right. With the pool divider now under her arms she reached up and took her goggles off and then her swim cap. She looked to her left and saw Emily several yards away in the pool.

Paige wasn't sure when Emily had realized Paige stopped swimming, but she was now slowly swimming her way over to where Paige was.

Paige was about a third pool's length into her lane. Not too far from the wall but enough to where Paige needed to work out her thigh muscle before she could make her way out of the pool. She was also in one of the center lanes of the pool so the only thing she could cling to was the divider.

_Great, this won't be awkward at all. _

This was seriously the last thing Paige needed. She did _not_ want to admit to Emily she had pushed herself too hard and now her leg was all kinds of uncomfortable. She wasn't even sure she could get out of the pool by herself.

Moving both her cap and goggles in her left hand she reached down into the water with her right hand, keeping the divider under her left arm, she massaged her mid-thigh with her knuckles. She winced at the discomfort but knew it would eventually loosen up if she kept at it.

Emily was now making her way under one of the dividers and then one more to be on the opposite side of the one Paige was hanging onto.

"Wow, you are ridiculously fast. I didn't think I'd catch you. Why'd you stop all of a sudden?" Emily asked slightly out of breath but with a sweet and concerned look on her face.

Paige was now looking directly into Emily's eyes.

_Those eyes. Oh god. Why are they such a perfect shade of reddish-brown? _

"Oh, ha, uh well I figured it'd be a good time to wrap up my workout." At this point Paige had broken her stare with Emily and was looking past Emily at the bleachers.

"In the middle of a lap?" Emily asked.

Paige could hear in Emily's voice that she didn't believe her. Paige made eye contact with Emily, shrugged a bit, cracked a half smile and then looked away again.

Emily moved closer to Paige, closing their distance even more. They were now inches apart in the water, Emily's arm almost touching Paige's, their legs almost making contact too. Paige's breath hitched in her throat. Her flesh grew hot and she swore the butterflies in her stomach had doubled in numbers.

"Are you okay? You look like you're in pain or something."

Paige looked back at Emily. "Huh, what?"

Paige didn't hear Emily because she was too preoccupied trying to get her shit together in front of a _very _attractive girl, a _very_ attractive girl who was now _very_ much in her personal space.

She didn't know what to say to her and wasn't expecting another encounter with her today. She had figured everyone had gone home, including Emily, and she was left alone to herself. The last person she expected to see was Emily diving into the pool next to her. Paige had hoped it'd be at least a couple days before they met again.

"I asked if you were okay, you seem like you are in a bit of discomfort."

"Oh, umm. Sorry, I just got distracted. I'm fine. All good here." Paige sounded almost too convincing to the point where if it had been someone who knew her well enough they'd be able to call her bluff.

Emily's eyes narrowed a tiny bit, she was still questioning Paige's response.

"I'm going to call bullshit."

"Excuse me?" Paige replied with raised eyebrows and a partially shocked expression glued to her face.

_Did she just call me out.? How does SHE even know? She just met me. She doesn't know me._

Her shocked face cracked into a smile and then a look of amusement at Emily's bluntness. And to be honest, Paige thought Emily calling bullshit on Paige's sad attempt at a cover up was totally hot.

"Well first off, I couldn't help but notice you're rubbing your thigh. Did you pull a muscle? Thigh cramp up? I mean, if it's not that you really are in pain because of your leg, then maybe it's just _ME_…I can leave, if it really pains you that much to see me." Emily stated in a manner that Paige couldn't quite tell if she was making a joke or not.

At those words Paige immediately stopped rubbing her leg. Completely embarrassed that Emily had noticed, she wanted to stop so as to not bring any more attention to her. But she also felt bad that Emily had made a comment about Paige being in pain because of Emily's presence.

Paige really did think Emily was nice and in any other situation, they would probably be good friends. But the problem was that Paige found Emily to be really attractive, charming, kind, sweet, and had one of the best smiles Paige had ever laid eyes on. All things that Paige didn't want to openly admit, because it made her feel extremely guilty inside.

She wasn't supposed to think these things; not about a girl. And definitely not about a girl she had only just met and had known for a few hours.

Paige breathed out an exasperated breath.

_Might as well just tell her_. _I don't seem to be fooling her any. And she thinks I hate her._

Emily was able to tell she was covering something up. Paige wasn't usually that easy to read and of course, Emily, of all people, seemed to already be able to read Paige like a book. This was something that struck her with a bit of curiosity but also unnerved Paige.

"Yeah, I guess I pushed it too hard. My thigh cramped up on me. I wasn't really able to tread water, so now here I am hanging onto the divider. I feel like a stranded baby seal that's surrounded by killer whales and I'm stuck where I am for the moment. Pretty pathetic, huh?" Paige asked.

Emily started to laugh. "Ha, not pathetic at all."

But then she grew serious and had a concentrated look on her face now.

"But I hope I'm not the killer whale in that slightly awful simile you just came up with. Like really? Baby seals and killer whales? That's so sad to picture because there's usually only one outcome with that situation. I seriously hope you don't get eaten. Plus I'm not into the whole cannibalism thing. And I'm not infected with any virus that will turn me into a zombie either. And actually, the same thing happened to me the other day. Can I help?" Emily asked very matter-of-factly.

Emily's response was too perfect. And delivered in such a serious enough tone that it caught Paige off guard. Paige started to chuckle. But then stopped herself from carrying on for too long.

Composing herself she responded with, "Uh, I don't know. I thought I just might stay here for a bit. See if it starts to feel better."

"Look, I know we just met, but I can give a _killer_ massage to your thigh that should loosen it up in no time. After that, all you need to do is take some ibuprofen and maybe ice it tonight. You'll be good to go for practice on Monday."

_Did she just offer to massage my leg?! And did she purposely just use the word killer to poke more fun at me?_

"I think I'll be fine, really. I just need to wait a little bit." Paige said with a reassuring smile.

"Please? I know it's probably weird considering we've known each other like a few hours, but I'd like to help." Emily was looking at Paige with anxious eyes.

"I just don't want to hold you up. I'm sure you have somewhere to be. I'll be fine, really. But thank you. That's sweet of you."

_Resist her Paige, resist her charm. You can't let this happen._

"Well, actually that's the thing; I don't have anywhere to be. I'm here right now and I see that you are in need of some help. As your teammate, I'm asking that you let me help you." That gorgeous smile, Paige already adored, spread across Emily's face, pleading Paige to just let Emily help.

_Why is she always so persistent? I wish she would stop smiling at me. I'm about to cave. This is so not how I wanted things to go._

Paige caved. She was not in the right mental state to deflect Emily's charm. Her resistance had been matched and then overcome by all things _Emily_ that Paige had already begun to adore.

Paige looked at Emily with uncertain eyes. And then breathed out an exaggerated "Fiiiine."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone!**

**Sorry my updates are so scattered. I'm usually still writing RIGHT before I post the new chapters, finishing up the chapter itself, adding to the detail, correcting stuff. I don't have anyone else look at it, so you all are the first. This means I try my best to get it right the first time I post new material. Often I'm re-reading the previous chapters to get the details accurate and information the same. Eek, talk about a lot of work. haha.**

**I was in a little bit of a funk, didn't really want to finish this chapter today, but luckily with the help of a friend, my mood was turned around and I was able to pump this out. I hope you guys like it. **

****Feedback is appreciated. Like I said it's a motivating factor, especially on the day's I'm hitting a wall with the writing..like today. **

**Alright, enjoy this new addition. Let me know what you think/how you feel after reading it. :)**

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The moment consent left her lips Paige wished she could take it back.

_Geez, why did I even say that? This is the complete opposite of what I wanted to happen between us._

But a bigger part of her wanted to see what would happen, so she didn't.

Emily smiled. "Alright, so the question is, how do we get you out of the pool if you don't think you can swim to the wall?"

"I don't know. I guess I'll just use the divider to pull myself to the wall of the pool, duck under the rest of the dividers and hopefully that'll put me right by the stairs over there."

Paige pointed to the stairs that were conveniently located on the same side of the pool as the bleachers and the locker room door.

"If you could just hold these, it'll make it easier for me to have both my hands empty."

Paige held out her goggles and swim cap to Emily flat in her hand.

"Alright, yeah sure."

Emily reached her hand out to take them from Paige, and in doing so, she lightly brushed Paige's palm with the tips of her fingers. Another shock of electricity shot through Paige and she did everything in her power not to flinch in front of Emily. She didn't want Emily to notice the effect she had on Paige.

"Meet you at the stairs? Maybe you could grab some towels?" Paige asked.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. See you in a sec."

On that note, Emily dove down into the water and made her way under the next four dividers that obstructed her path. She didn't surface until she reached the far wall. She placed Paige's goggles and swim cap on the tile in proximity to the stairs.

Paige watched as Emily made her way over to the stairs and ascended up them one-by-one.

_Wow. Who am I to be so lucky to have a girl like __**her**__ giving me the time of day?_

Paige had the absolute best view of Emily's ass right now. She had a perfectly cute, rounded, toned butt. And the way her suit was hugging it was enough to make Paige wish she was the suit itself. _Anything to be that close and in contact with Emily_ she thought.

Paige also had a weakness for defined calve muscles, and Emily had those too. Emily's legs were works of art. Works of art that Paige wanted to touch but knew she couldn't and shouldn't. They were amazingly toned, _very_ athletic looking legs.

_Damn. This whole avoiding Emily is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Please, just show me one flaw, ONE flaw that will turn me off to you completely._

Paige wasn't so sure Emily would even have one, but she had hoped Emily did, because it allowed Paige to justify her reasoning as to why spending time with Emily was as bad of an idea as she was thinking it would be. Actually, as bad of an idea as she_ knew_ it would be.

By now Emily had walked over to the locker room door, she reached for the handle and yanked the door open, disappearing inside shortly after.

Paige started her task of doing the same to exit the pool and had hoped that by the time Emily came back out with the towels, her leg would be feeling back to normal.

She dove under the first divider only to feel that her leg very much disagreed with that method. So to her embarrassment she began to pull herself over the next few. Hoisting herself up with the strength of her arms she pulled herself over them almost effortlessly. She knew for a fact that she probably looked ridiculous.

_I probably don't look like too much of a fool. It's probably in my head. Besides she still hasn't come out yet. I think I'm in the clear._

But of course, on the last one she needed to get herself over, she had been in the process of lifting herself up and over just when the locker room door swung open and Emily walked out with two towels in hand.

That's when Paige lost her focus and balance. She came down onto the divider with her stomach and fell forward. Initially, it had caused her to do an almost belly flop, but when she hit the water she had tucked her head and it turned into an underwater front somersault.

She popped up out of the water and shook her head to get her hair out of her face. Her hair had been pulled back, but she still had fly-aways. Reaching up with her hand, she smoothed her hair back and away from her field of vision.

Emily now stood at the edge of pool, towels in hand, bent over howling in laughter.

_Of course, she __**would**__ see that. Awesome. Just awesome Paige. You. Are. On. A. Roll. Today._

"Oh god, how much of that did you witness?" Paige asked as she hobbled her way through the water to the steps.

Emily was still laughing, basically in tears by this point. She couldn't get enough oxygen to even breath, let alone reply to Paige.

Paige grabbed the hand rail, hopped up the next couple of steps and stopped at the top. She had her right hand still on the rail and threw her left hand on her hip. While somewhat glaring at Emily now.

"I warned you that I was clumsy."

_And if you weren't so damn distracting._

"OOoooommmyyyyy-gawd. That wa- that was the fun- funniest thing I think I- I've seen in a long time." Emily managed to spit out between gasps of air.

Paige was tomato red by this point. There was no going back. There was no way she could get Emily to un-see what she just saw. At this exact moment, Paige wished she'd had a time machine. She was looking down now at her feet. They were still submerged a few inches of water.

Emily had composed herself a bit better by now.

"Awwhh no, you're totally embarrassed right now, aren't you? Like seriously, don't be. Please don't be embarrassed by me seeing that."

"I'm not embarrassed." Paige stated.

She was looking up at Emily now. Her insta-blush had died down a bit and she mustered every bit of confidence she had in her to ask Emily "So what would you have rated it?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Emily replied, looking a bit confused but Paige could see in her facial expression that Emily had just registered what Paige had asked. It looked to Paige like she had taken Emily by surprise.

"I was wondering what you would have rated my pool trick, had you been judging. Just curious. But if I feel like you've rated me too low, there will be consequences."

Emily started to laugh again. Not as belly deep as before, but more of a laugh of amusement.

"You definitely keep me on my toes McCullers. I am never prepared for what comes out of your mouth sometimes. You're hilarious."

"You didn't answer my question." Paige said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, well..wait a minute, what are the consequences? Emily asked, looking _very_ curiously at Paige.

"That's something you hopefully won't have to find out. So, what'd I earn myself? Besides the title of biggest klutz in and out of the pool."

"Oh stop, it wasn't that bad. And you are definitely not that klutzy. And what I would rate you? HHmmm, let's see. I'd give it a 5 for entry, an 8 for attempt, a 9 for execution, and a 10 strictly because you made me laugh so hard I was in tears. The extent to how much I laugh definitely earns its own category. It kind of looked something between a seal doing a belly flop, failing to conquer a pool lane divider and a mermaid completing a graceful underwater somersault."

"Ouch, a seal? Really? But really a 5 for entry? There's no way."

"Look I'm sorry, but there was quite a bit of splash on that one. My splash-o-meter was off the charts."

Paige still held Emily's gaze. They both realized at that moment how ridiculous this conversation was and both broke down into more laughter.

Paige had most of her weight on her left leg, but in the midst of laughing so hard she shifted a bit onto her right. This caused her to remember why she had been crawling over the dividers in the first place.

Paige winced a bit at the pain her muscle had caused her in that tiny bit of shifting her weight. Emily had noticed.

"Oh right, here, can I help you?" Emily asked.

Paige nodded her head in agreement. Paige took her right hand off the rail and move over a little to the left to make room for Emily. Emily came over to Paige's right side and wrapped her left arm around the small of Paige's back allowing her hand to rest on Paige's left hip. Paige threw her right arm up and around Emily's neck to help support her weight. Emily was just a tad shorter than Paige, but it was like they were a perfect fit; Emily a perfect support.

Paige couldn't believe how close they were to each other right now. They hardly even knew each other. Emily, of course, was just being friendly and helping a "teammate" out and here was Paige, hardly able to stop herself from continuing to check Emily out.

_God, Paige, stop. She's just being nice._

"It's just still a bit tight. Definitely still cramped up."

Emily helped Paige up the last step out of the pool and helped walk her over to the bleachers.

"Here, take a seat." Emily instructed.

Lowering herself onto the first bleacher, Paige took a seat. Emily wrapped a towel around Paige and then used hers to wring out her hair after she had released her hair from the bun it had been in. Emily then took a seat next to Paige on her left side.

"Can I help loosen it up a bit?"

"Huh? What?"

Paige, of course, had been so distracted staring at Emily's gorgeous hair that she didn't hear Emily's question. She had been too busy thinking how nice it would be to touch it and run her hands gently through it.

Emily smiled at Paige. "Your thigh, can I help loosen it up? I know a way to massage out the cramp."

"Oh yeah, right. My thigh. Uhh, sure."

_Could you be any more awkward Paige?_

Paige was honestly surprised Emily was still around. She had no idea why she had a single interest in helping Paige out. Especially not in a manner that required physical contact on a person's upper leg. Letting Emily give Paige a massage was a big step for Paige.

She had never had very much physical contact with many people, and the times that she did, she was always very selective with who could cross her touch barrier. Usually, it consisted of high-fives, brief hugs, or letting someone she'd known for a while lean on her. Often Paige never gave into her urges to show affection to other people. She often thought too much about it, and _that_ caused it to seem more complicated than it, in all reality, was. She just never wanted to be rejected showing affection to someone else, because in a way, that was her, opening herself up to one of her most vulnerable states. So, in many ways, it was easier if she just ruled out that possibility until she felt like someone was_ really_ worth the risk.

Letting Emily massage a cramp out of her leg felt like she was skipping a step in her normal routine of getting to know someone. She wasn't particularly comfortable with it, but her leg was still in quite a bit of pain. Besides, the last thing she needed was for her dad to see her limping home after her first practice on the team.

"Okay, so it'll be easier for me if you could actually lay back on the bleacher. Spin your feet towards where I'm sitting. Keep the majority of your right side balanced on the bleacher and let your left leg bend at the knee letting your foot rest on the other side of the bench. It'll help to keep you balanced."

"Okay."

"I'm going to stand up and sort of hover over your leg, I'll have an easier time getting my hands on you that way."

Paige thought to herself how Emily's sentence could mean something completely different if taken out of a completely different context then what she meant. She was slightly embarrassed that she even allowed herself to think such a thing. Emily was just being a _friend,_ nothing more. And her she was thinking non-friend thoughts. It made her feel wrong.

Paige started to feel hot again. Her heart picking up it's rhythm in her chest. Emily stood and Paige folded her towel a few times to create pillow of sorts for her head. She slowly lay back onto the bleacher doing just as Emily had instructed.

"You ready?"

"MMhhhmm."

Emily softly touched Paige's thigh at first but then started to rub her hands in with more of a purpose. Paige curled her head to the side to watch initially, but at her angle Emily's butt was almost directly in her field of vision.

_Nope. Better not. Abort. Break eye contact now. It's already bad enough she is giving me a massage, if I stare at her ass the entire time I'll become increasingly more turned on than I already am. _

She slowly kneaded and worked Paige's right thigh muscle up to down.

"MMmm." Paige let out a little whimper of discomfort.

"Yeah, sorry, it's not going to feel too good for a bit, but I promise after I'm done it'll feel back to normal, maybe even better. You definitely do feel pretty tight. Like knotted up."

Emily was going with the length of Paige's thigh muscles, working her hands down Paige's thigh. This meant that she had both of her hands wrapped around Paige's thigh focusing most of her pressure to her thumbs which were at the center of Paige's thigh, the tip of her thumbs running vertical with the rest of Paige's leg. Emily left the rest of her digits wrapped on the outsides of her thigh. She maintained a safe distance away from where Paige's leg met her groin. But it was still the closest Paige had ever let anyone allow.

"It's not so bad. But yeah, like you said, still tight."

"The best way to massage out a thigh cramp is to make sure the direction of the strokes of the hands is the same as the thigh muscles. It helps with the blood circulation in the affected part of the muscles and eventually releases the tension from them."

"Oh yeah? Neat. You seem to know your stuff."

"Actually this is the first time I've done this. You're actually the first person I convinced to let me do this."

Paige sat up at hearing this. "No way, are you joking?"

Emily stopped what she was doing and turned around to face Paige.

"Dude, I'm totally messing with you. Lay back down. I've done this for several other people on the team. My Uncle was a physical therapist. He taught me a few tricks. I'm no expert, but this isn't my first time. Really, it was a joke. I promise."

"Yeah, right, if you say so." Paige said in an unsure manner.

Paige was still a little reluctant to lie back down, but Emily's hands started to slowly apply pressure to Paige's shoulders to force her to lie back down. Paige didn't fight it. Emily went back to work rubbing Paige's muscles.

Paige had wondered why Emily said her Uncle_ was_ a physical therapist, as in past tense. But she still wasn't very comfortable enough to pry even more into Emily's life then Emily had already allowed.

"No really, I've done this before. It's not that uncommon for swimmers to get cramped up during or after a practice."

Because Paige was trying hard not to stare at Emily's ass while she rubbed out Paige's muscle she closed her eyes to help her zone out a bit, hoping the process would be over before she knew it.

She listened to Emily continue to talk, but didn't have to respond much because Emily just kept filling the gaps of silence with more words. Paige could listen to Emily talk all day long if she could help it.

Paige must have drifted off to sleep at some point shortly after closing her eyes because the next thing she knew she heard someone softly saying her name and felt a hand rubbing her forearm lightly.

Paige's eyes shot open and in a slight panic she ended up rolling off the bleacher and onto the tiled floor. She was now on all fours and staring up at Emily who had a face that seemed to be frozen between worry and laughter.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I tried to wake you as gently as I could. You must have fallen asleep at some point during the massage or am I so boring that I put you to sleep with my ramblings?" Emily questioned with an adorable smile on her face.

"No. No, no far from it. Uh-umm, I mean. Yeah I guess I did fall asleep. Sorry about the panicked wake up. I don't usually do that. I usually wake up very calmly."

Paige brought herself to a standing position now and took a seat back on the bleachers next to where her towel had been folded under her head.

"How long was I out?" Paige asked.

Emily took a seat next to Paige on her left side.

"I don't really know. I was only rubbing your leg for maybe 20 minutes. I guess you got a quick 10 minute nap in or so."

"Right, my leg, holy shit. It's a miracle. It feels great. It doesn't hurt anymore. You're amazing."

"Well, good. I'm glad. I'm here whenever you need me. I can do a pretty good shoulder and back massage too. That one is a fan favorite amongst the rest of the team, especially after meets. Don't hesitate to ask if you need me to loosen you up again."

"I'll be sure to take note of that." Paige replied, but what she was really thinking was that this would be the first and last time Emily massaged her.

Emily and Paige grew silent for a bit. But it wasn't a weird silence at all. It was fitting for the moment, and neither of them was uncomfortable with it.

"So about my earlier proposal…" Emily started.

_Oh man, here she goes again. _

"You can forget about it. I'll just admit that you probably would have lapped me had practice kept going."

"Haha, what? Giving up so soon? I thought you stopped at no costs to get what you wanted, which reminds me, ..you never disclosed to me earlier, what you wanted. Before we got interrupted."

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry about that. That was Marni. We've known each other since we started swim lessons. She doesn't always think about what she does when she does it. Like how it might affect other people."

"No it's fine, don't worry about it. I wasn't offended at all, I could tell she had some important news to tell you. And besides, before my cramped muscle fiasco, I do believe you would have been the winner of that round, as much as it pains me to admit it. Let's call it a draw."

"Yeah, important news for Marni takes the shape of parties half the time. The other half is anything related to the guy she's been crushing on now for a few years. A guy she probably doesn't have a chance with. And really? A draw? I didn't intend for _THAT_ to be the race."

"Haha, sounds like the typical teenage girl. And yep, a draw. But actually, now that I think about it, your magical hands just relieved me of my leg cramp… so in all honesty, I'd say this round goes to you. Therefore, it's Emily: 2, Paige: 1. Based off today's competition, you're the winner."

"Oh you're too kind, I was just trying to help your leg feel better."

"I know, I know. Now don't make me regret giving you that bonus point."

_What am I doing?_

Paige found herself flirting with Emily. And it was coming all too easy and felt way too natural.

"So does this mean you'll agree to my proposed idea?"

"HHHmmm, yeah, I guess. Oh, but minus the crying myself to sleep part, and only under the conditions that what happened here, today, stays between you and me."

"Which part?" Emily asked with raised eyebrows.

Paige blushed when she thought of the leg massage again. She figured it was best just to forget it happened.

"Umm, that seal-mermaid-flip-trick-thing gone bad, of course."

"_WHAT? _Oh come on, that was the highlight of my year so far." Emily placed her hand on Paige's knee a lightly gripped it. It was out of playful frustration as far as Paige could judge.

"Well you realize it's still only January right? The year has just begun." Paige said with a mischievous smile.

All she could think about now was Emily's hand on her knee, but she fought _every_ urge in her body to reach down with her own hand and rest it on top of Emily's perfectly light brown skin.

She decided she wouldn't even look down, that way she wouldn't bring attention to it; she was afraid Emily would remove her hand if she caught Paige staring at it.

"Good point, I forgot it's a brand new year already." Emily replied.

Emily had shifted her gaze down at her hand on Paige's knee. Instead of removing it, she slid it a bit further up Paige's leg, about three inches from where her knee was. Something about Paige's leg had Emily's full attention.

Paige, feeling slightly insecure, watched Emily's face with interest.

Emily seemed to have noticed Paige's birthmarks.

Paige had patches of darker skin, close to the color of the outside of a walnut shell, all of them smaller than the size of a regular playing card, which sat on her left upper thigh.

They followed each other in a trail, the first two sat perfectly in the middle of her thigh. The first one was about three inches from the top of her knee. Separated by about an inch of Paige's fairer-skin the second patch sat a little further up her leg, about mid-thigh. The third, further up, sat slightly to the left and the fourth was almost directly on her side, wrapping around, just at the start of her butt.

Emily started to trace the outline of the one closest to Paige's knee with her index finger. The soft touch of Emily's finger tracing an uneven pattern on Paige's leg shot shivers up her spine and caused her to hold her breath. The hair on her arms came to a stand. Goosebumps now covered both arms and she tried everything in her power to will them away.

Emily stopped suddenly, having made it half way around the first marking; she had a look of innocence about her that turned into embarrassment as soon as she realized what she had just done.

Paige watched as Emily's facial expression changed again. It went from embarrassment to a look of sudden realization that she might have just done something she'd regret, as far as Paige could tell.

Emily had both of her hands in her lap at this point. She looked up at Paige and said, "I'm sorry. I uh, -that was totally inappropriate. I've just always admired those kinds of birthmarks. You know how they say freckles are kisses from angels? These are almost as if a few hundred of those little kisses melted together and formed one huge beautiful, almost sloppy, kiss. I just now noticed the few patches on your thigh. I guess when your left leg was bent, supporting you during the massage, I didn't see them. Sometimes I do, or act on, things before I think. I'm sorry."

_"I'm more than happy you weren't thinking, in fact I wish you would have kept going", _is what Paige wanted to say to Emily, but what she said was,

"Oh, umm. Yeah, I've heard that. But I've never thought of them that way before. Ha. I guess that's essentially what they are though, freckles that kind of just grouped together, forming a larger one. Sloppy angel kisses sound cuter. Don't be sorry. I wasn't weirded out. I have four of them that, as you can see, start just above my knee cap and they work their way back to, -well, to the side of my left butt cheek. My suit covers most of that one up. Ha. I think you're the first person to mention them in a positive light though. So, umm, thanks."

Paige began to blush. For one, Emily noticed and mentioned something about Paige that she felt was very personal, for two, Emily seemed to like them, for three, she didn't know why she just told Emily part of one rested on her left butt cheek.

_Crap, that was probably way too much information. _

They had been a source of insecurity for Paige in her earlier years of growing up. She had always been hopeful they'd disappear one day when she was older. She'd always just tried to ignore they were there, feeling as though they were blemishes on her skin. She'd had them ever since she could remember and in the summer time they'd get considerably darker then the rest of her skin due to the higher amount of obvious melanin in those four patches. Overall, she was a fair skinned girl who didn't really tan, but didn't really burn in the sun easily either. And because she pretty much grew up wearing a swimsuit, she just chose to ignore them, and had hoped others would too.

"I like them a lot. You can tell a lot of angels must have liked to kiss you." Emily said sweetly, a smile slowly formed by her lips. Lips, that looked very kissable to Paige.

Changing the subject and taking her eyes off of Emily's lips Paige asked "Uh, So, has it been a good one so far, the new year?" Paige asked.

"Ummm, in some ways yes. One way no. But hey, I just met you and I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship. So that's good."

"Did you just try to quote Casablanca?"

"Maaaybee." Emily replied playfully.

"Haha, you may have failed a little bit at it. The line goes, Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"I knew that, but your name isn't Louie and I basically said the same thing, might have substituted a few words for the originals but whatever, don't judge."

"You still butchered it." Paige stated.

"Shut up." Emily squeezed Paige's side at her hearing her remark.

Paige squirmed out of Emily's grasp and started to giggle without any bit of control.

"Ahhh no, Sta- Stop. -I'm super ticklish."

"Oh, are you?" Emily asked with an innocent tone of voice.

"Yes."

"Hmmm note to self, Paige McCullers has a weakness. She's ticklish."

"Yeah, well that's the only weakness I'll let you find out about."

"Well, by my count. That's technically your third. You've already proved yourself to be clumsy and admitted to it as well. You're curious. And I just found out you are ticklish."

"Damn. You're too observant. Stop that." Paige reached over and attempted to poke Emily in the side with her index finger.

Emily was able to grab Paige's finger before it made contact with her side. As soon as she had grabbed Paige's finger, they both locked onto each other's eyes. She held it for a few seconds, which felt like a lifetime to Paige, released it and said, "Careful, I have cat-like reflexes." Then she broke their intense stare by looking down at the watch on her wrist.

Paige laughed at Emily's declaration, and then asked out of curiosity, "What time is it?"

"It's almost six forty-five." Emily answered.

"Shoot, my mom might be here by now. I told her I'd only be another hour when I texted her around five-thirty. I should probably go."

Paige stood up and reached for her towel. It was still neatly folded in place where she had let her head rest when Emily was working on her thigh.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks for keeping me entertained. I had a fun time; we should do this again sometime, minus the muscle cramp."

Emily was still seated, staring up at Paige with hopeful eyes.

"Umm, yeah. Definitely. Thanks again for fixing my leg. You were a godsend."

"Anytime, see you Monday?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, see you Monday." Paige answered.

Paige turned her back to Emily and started walking briskly for the locker room door. If she didn't know better, she never would have guessed her thigh had been causing her so much discomfort earlier. Emily really did have magic hands, she had erased all signs from Paige's leg that it had been cramped up earlier.

Just as she reached out for the handle to the door her foot make contact with the floor mat that sat just outside the door entrance. Paige tripped and fell towards the door. Luckily, she had been in the process of reaching out for the handle, so she was able to grip it and catch herself before completely slamming into the door.

_Whew, good save. Damn mat._

Just before she pulled the door open, Emily called out to her.

"Hey, Paige?"

Paige turned her head to the left where Emily's voice had traveled from.

"Yeah?"

"Don't think I forgot about our little deal. It'll be non-negotiable once I decide what to use it on."

If the look on Emily's face was any indication about their future outing, it looked like they'd be up to no good. The thought alone that she had agreed to accompany Emily somewhere both terrified and excited Paige at the same time. The thought that Emily had possibly been plotting something in her head, right now, as Paige had been walking away, just added to the intensity of these feelings.

"Okay, okay. Just use it wisely."

Paige pulled opened the door.

Oh, and Paige?"

"Yes?" Paige replied, peeking her head out from the open door.

"I totally saw that. Good save though." Emily was smiling widely at Paige now.

"I don't know what you are talking about Fields. You're delusional. See you Monday."

Paige called back just before she let the door close with a dull thud behind her.

^^^^^^Emily's POV

"_Wow_" was all Emily had been able to breathe out just as soon as Paige had disappeared into the locker room.

"Paige McCullers, you are one _hot_ mess." Emily whispered out loud.

As soon as she had allowed her thoughts to leave her mouth, her lips pulled up into one of the biggest smiles she had ever had on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Well hello there my lovely readers! Please forgive me for the delay in updating. I had quite the busy weekend dealing with work related stuff and I was also having issues figuring out where I wanted to take this chapter. I had hoped to get more written than what I will be posting today, but I hope this will hold you over until the next chapter.. which should be up in the next couple of days. **

**Reviews are greatly appreciated. I love to read the feedback. So don't hesitate to let me know what you think. -Britt**

* * *

Still sitting on the bleacher where Paige had left her, Emily ran back through the series of events that had just taken place with Paige in her head.

She was already crushing really hard on this girl. A girl she'd only known for less than three hours, but those three hours seemed to be long enough to gain Emily's full and undivided attention. It'd been a while since Emily had laughed as hard and smiled as big as she had today with Paige.

Though, the one thought that lingered in the back of her mind was that Paige hadn't really shown any signs of being interested in Emily or possibly even being gay for that matter.

_What about that intense stare that she continued to hold with me even after I released her finger? Why did I look down at my watch? I wasn't really interested in the time._

Emily knew that had she allowed herself to get lost in Paige's warm brown eyes any longer, it could have made Paige extremely uncomfortable.

Emily had no intentions of losing Paige before she had the _chance_ to actually **_find_** her.

_She seemed to be friendly towards me, but maybe she was just being polite. God, I love her sense of humor. She's so funny. I like that she makes jokes about herself. And she's honest. An honest girl would be good for me._

Something about this girl made Emily want to know more about her. She could sense that Paige seemed to be a naturally closed off person and she wondered what might have caused her to be that way. Maybe she was just a little shy, or unsure.

She was easy to read though, and when Emily seemed to ask her anything she'd say exactly what she wanted to. When she didn't want to elaborate she told Emily exactly that. But Emily figured, with time, if she was lucky enough to spend more time with her, Paige would open up more to her.

Emily hoped that she, herself, wasn't that cause, making it hard for Paige to be herself around her. Emily always thought herself to be very easy going and friendly. No one had ever told her she came off as having an intimidating personality, quite the opposite actually; she was a very approachable person.

_Did I come on too strong? Maybe the massage was too weird. I might have overstepped my boundaries. But then again, I'll massage other people on the team if they ask. Maybe I'm just over-thinking this whole thing. Wait, why am I thinking any of this, she's probably straight anyways._

It wouldn't be the first time Emily fell for a straight girl, she'd just hoped that maybe she was wrong about Paige. She _really_ wanted to be wrong about Paige. So, Emily figured she'd test the waters, dive down to the bottom, and hopefully have it all figured out before she surfaced again.

Emily's gaze drifted over from her feet to the edge of the pool by the stairs. There on the tile, she noticed that Paige's goggles and swim cap were still where she had placed them when she had left the pool earlier to grab their towels.

_Paige left and forgot to grab them. Was she in that big of a hurry to get away from me?_

Emily came to a stand, grabbed her towel and threw it over her left shoulder. She walked over to the goggles and swim cap and bent down to pick them up. Standing up with the goggles and cap in her hand she took a closer look at the goggles.

Paige's goggles looked like they had been well worn, almost to the point where she'd probably need a new pair soon. The edges of the eye pieces were scratched up quite a bit and the straps looked like they could snap at any point. It was a curious thing to Emily as to why Paige had goggles in such bad condition. It didn't really make sense to her. She was always replacing her own goggles when they proved to be just about out of life.

Knowing she had the team contact list she figured she'd text Paige about them and see what she wanted her to do with them. She had a feeling Paige probably had several pairs at home anyways. Losing goggles and swim caps was a given with swimming competitively.

Pulling up the hood on her hoodie, to cover up her still damp hair from the quick shower she just took, Emily exited the side door of the gym with her duffle resting on her right shoulder. The expected, but still surprising cold air caused her to briefly lose her breath once she had fully stepped outside.

It was pitch black outside by now and the January air was nipping away at her nose. Taking the sidewalk that wrapped around to the front of the school, Emily sped her pace up so she could find shelter from the harsh wind in her car.

Luckily this year's winter was a mild one so far and there wasn't any snow on the ground requiring her to walk extra carefully to her car. Her car keys were in her left hand ready to unlock her car with a push of the unlock button and her phone was in her right hand ready to dial anyone's number if need be.

Out of habit, she had parked on the street in front of the school under a street lamp. She often found herself swimming earlier in the mornings before classes or staying later into the evenings after practices when she felt the need, but most often _want,_ to get extra practice in.

Her dad had always warned her about staying as visible as possible at night when she was walking to her car alone. Parking under a street lamp was something he had asked her to do to make him feel only the tiniest bit better about her being out by herself during the darkest hours of the day. It didn't necessarily prevent someone from preying on her, but it might make them think twice if they knew they could be seen.

Double clicking the unlock button on her car remote, her red Toyota Corolla flashed it's head and tail lights signaling that it had successfully unlocked for her. She opened the passenger side door and threw her bag onto the seat. Closing the door, she stepped into the street and made her way around the front of the car and to her door.

She opened up the door and quickly took her seat inside while tugging the door shut. She automatically reached for the lock button and locked all the doors, securing herself inside. Without looking she reached up and clicked on the overhead light.

With her phone still in her hand she unlocked the screen and started a text message to Paige that read:

**Hey! This is Emily, I saw that you had left your goggles & cap when you left earlier. I have them with me. What did you want me to do with them? :) -E**

After she sent Paige the text she proceeded to send a text to her mom, letting her know she was in her car about to head home from the school. Just after she hit the send button, her phone buzzed in her hand with a reply from Paige already.

_Wow, that was fast._

**Oh shoot! I totally spaced. Is there any way you might be able to swing by my place & drop them off tonight? They are kind of important to me. If not it's okay, I can meet you tomorrow to get them. -P**

_Odd, what's so important about goggles and a swim cap. Maybe she thinks they are lucky or something._

**Sure no problem, I can swing by tonight, I haven't left the school yet. What's your address? -E**

Paige replied almost immediately again. Emily had recognized the street name right away, it was about a 15 minute drive from her own place, but it sat just outside of the Rosewood school zone and just inside the Jefferson school zone where the surrounding area was considered more rural.

**Great, thanks, see you soon! -E**

Before she pulled out onto the street, she sent her mom a follow-up text letting her know she'd be stopping by a teammate's house to drop off their belongings. Her mom just warned her not to stay out too late and to text her when she was officially on her way home.

Emily's thoughts were again filled with Paige as she drove towards her destination.

Emily just couldn't shake her thoughts about Paige. She attempted to change the radio station several times throughout her drive, but without any luck in changing the focus of her thoughts she just silenced the radio and left herself to her own thoughts.

Her emotions were tripping over Paige and it was unlike anything she had ever experienced after meeting someone for such a short length of time.

She realized it was a good first step in finally moving on from the previous relationship she was in. It had ended a few months ago on bad terms and she wasn't sure she'd be ready to move on so soon. It wasn't that she still felt attached to her previous girlfriend, it was just that she had been hurt and she thought it would take a lot more time to mend the broken feeling she still felt inside.

Emily was now approaching the address Paige had texted her. She came to a slow crawl with her car and took the left hand turn towards the tree-lined driveway. The driveway continued straight back for quite some time and then curved slightly to the right. Paige's house was tucked away behind quite a bit of tree growth. It was too dark to tell, but Emily imagined it to be a very beautiful drive in the daytime during the warmer months. With it being winter, the majority of all the trees were bare and Emily could make out little specks of light coming from other houses in the distance.

Paige's driveway must have been about a mile long. It was definitely one of the more private pieces of property Emily had visited in a while. Emily lived in a very residential area with neighbors on all sides. She wondered what it would be like to not have neighbors directly next door, in front, and in back of her house.

Reaching the end of the driveway Emily parked her car on the left next to the illuminated driveway lamp. She cut the engine to her car and took a minute to collect her thoughts.

Peering out her car windows she took a minute to glance at Paige's house. With the front porch lights on as well as the driveway lamp it was fairly easy for Emily to make out most of its details.

It was a white two story house that was, what Emily guessed, at least four to five bedrooms big.

_I wonder if she has a big family._

The window shutters were a shade of navy blue, matching the color of the front door. There was a covered porch stretching across the front of the house that had a swinging bench hanging on the left side and a couple of rocking chairs that sat on the right. She had parked in front of one of the two garage doors and off to the far right of the driveway space she noticed a basketball hoop sitting where the asphalt met the lawn. The yard looked like it had been professionally landscaped and was most likely up kept throughout the year. Paige's backyard was fenced in and Emily wondered if maybe they had a family dog.

The clock on her phone now read that is was just after seven thirty. She sent a quick text to Paige letting her know she was there in hopes that she wouldn't have to stand on the porch that long waiting for Paige to open the door. She was in a hoodie and baggy sweat pants but her outfit didn't prevent her from feeling chilled when she stepped outside. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she reached over to her duffle and unzipped the side pocket that stored Paige's belongings.

With Paige's goggles and swim cap in her right hand, and her phone and car keys in her left hand, Emily opened up her car door. Exposing herself to the cold harsh wind of the night again, Emily proceeded to get out of her car as fast as she could so that she didn't have to endure the wintry air any longer than she had to.

Stuffing her keys and phone in her left sweatpants pocket, Emily briskly walked her way up the brick sidewalk that that eventually led her to the two steps of Paige's porch. With one swift jump she cleared them both and landed just before the welcome door mat. Just as she outstretched her arm to ring the doorbell, the door opened up and there was Paige, looking as hot as ever wearing a skin tight grey tank top and sweatpants that were rolled once at her hip, exposing the tiniest bit of her stomach.

Emily swallowed hard.

_Damn._

Was all Emily could think.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello my awesome readers! So I've been receiving a few reviews asking questions about more back story to some of the things Paige and Emily are thinking to themselves as well as some things that have been mentioned in previous chapters, don't worry! I'm piecing it all together within the next several chapters.. I guess the way I'm going about it is you guys will find out when the girls find out at their respective times.**

**There are LOTS of little details strung throughout the first five chapters already.. some you may have forgotten about already. But they will not be forgotten! I'm sure many of you have also noticed that my chapters don't move very fast through time. That wasn't how I intended it to happen when I first came up with this story idea, but once I started writing, and kept writing, that's what has become of it, but hey, at least that means I'm nowhere near finished with this!**

**Thanks for hanging in there with me. It took me so long to update the last chapter because I initially wasn't feeling it, and I was not going to post something that I didn't feel good about, but I seemed to have cleared that hurdle because I'm back on track with where I'm taking the story.**

**Thanks for your patience. And a big thanks to my new followers. You guys are the best. I keep writing for you. (ALL OF YOU FOLLOWERS!) **

**Also the reviews bring constant smiles to my face. Thanks for the awesome feedback, my reviewers give me that little extra bit of motivation when I need it. If you read something you like, tell me, if you read something you don't, tell me! **

**Alrighty, well enjoy this next chapter :) I updated so soon due to how long it took me to get Chapter 5 up.**

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Paige greeted Emily with a "Hey."

Emily's eyes quickly averted their gaze from Paige's tiny bit of exposed flesh to her eyes. Eyes that Emily already loved looking into. They were the perfect shade of dark brown. They were extremely warm and inviting. And they made it almost impossible for Emily to collect her thoughts because she felt like she was melting under Paige's stare.

Emily responded with an overly excited "Hi" and a stupid grin she couldn't wipe off her face.

It must have been contagious though, because Paige was now smiling back.

"It's kinda cold out there. Did you want to come in?" Paige asked with raised eyebrows and expectant eyes.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks."

Stepping inside, Emily reached her hand up and pulled down the hood of her sweatshirt. She ran her right hand through her hair and tousled it around. She had hoped it would prevent her hair from looking too weird after having her hood on for so long when her hair had still been drying.

Emily took a brief few seconds to look around from where she stood in the entryway. Immediately she thought that the inside of Paige's house looked like it had been decorated by Martha Stewart herself. A hallway made its way from the front door to the back of the house where Emily assumed the kitchen was as well as possibly the living room. The staircase was almost immediately to the right of the front door. And at the top of the stairs directly in front of them was a door that was half cracked.

_Probably a bedroom._

There was a railing bordering left side of the staircase that eventually angled ninety degrees to the left at the top of the stairs and connected with a separate wall creating an inside balcony hallway space that probably led to the rest of bedrooms. Emily always figured it probably made it easier for people to yell down below to the lower level of the house when they needed to.

The wall, that followed the stairs up on the right side, ran parallel to the railing and was lined with numerous family pictures along the way up the staircase. To the right of the bottom of the staircase was what she assumed was an office space. It wasn't well lit, and two French doors closed this space off, but from what she could see there was a large wooden desk and several well stocked bookcases. To her left was the family room and in its back left corner sat a grand piano. Emily wondered if anyone played.

Paige gently shut the door behind Emily while locking the dead bolt as well as the handle. Emily had the habit of doing the exact same thing to her door when she was home.

Paige walked a little ways away from the door and towards the side of the stairs by the railing. She leaned against it with her left shoulder, facing Emily, and her back now facing a side table that had a few picture frames resting on it.

Emily was still standing off to the left side of the now shut front door facing Paige.

"So did you find my place okay?"

"Yeah, I recognized the street once you sent me your address. I didn't expect your driveway to be so long though."

"Ah, yes. It makes for quite the trip just to grab the mail and newspaper. But I guess it's not so bad if I plan mail pick up around my run workouts or if my parents pick it up on their way back from work."

"Ha, I would imagine that could be quite a bit of hassle just for the morning paper."

"Hence, the reason we often read the newspaper in the evenings." Paige smiled at Emily.

"I don't blame you one bit."

At this moment Emily noticed one of Paige's tank top straps was twisted a couple times on her right shoulder, without thinking Emily took a step forward towards Paige and untwisted it, allowing it to lay flat against Paige's shoulder. She then let her hand drop back down to her side.

Emily and Paige were now inches apart. Paige's slightly longer than shoulder length hair smelt of strawberries and some sort of citrus fruit. It was obvious she had showered not too long ago because Emily saw that her hair was still lightly damp. It was the first time that Emily noticed Paige's hair was a beautiful auburn color as opposed to the brown she thought it was when they were talking by the poolside.

Paige seemed to have been taken by surprise by Emily's small act because she stood upright from leaning on the railing and took a slight step back.

_Shit, why did I do that?_

Emily was worried she had just made Paige uncomfortable.

The step back caused Paige to hit into the side table.

"Shit." Paige hissed out.

With the slight bump of her body, one of the picture frames had knocked over and both Emily and Paige reached for it at the same time. Emily's hands met the object first and Paige's second. Paige's left hand was almost directly on top of Emily's. Paige's contact with Emily's hand sent shivers up Emily's spine that eventually led to her having a hot face.

Paige hesitantly released her grasp on the frame; Emily now held it completely in her hands. Turning the frame over and flipping it upright Emily took a minute to examine the picture.

It was a family of four captured in the picture she was staring at. Paige was probably three to four years younger. She was standing next to a handsome teenage boy that was about a good foot taller than her. She could see that they had very similar features in their faces, no doubt they were related. The only difference she could spot was that he had bright blue eyes and a darker shade of brown colored shaggy hair. His body looked like it might have had the build of a swimmer. A woman and a man, Paige's parents she presumed, stood to the other side of the boy. In order from left to right, it was Paige's father, her mother, the boy and then Paige. They were wearing similar outfits, all of them in navy blue tops and khaki pants. They looked extremely happy and Emily couldn't help but smile as she continued to look at the picture.

"This is a really good picture of you." Emily stated looking up at Paige making eye contact with her.

"Oh, uh. Thanks." Paige answered in a slightly surprised tone of voice.

Emily saw Paige's face turn the slightest bit of pink before she looked down at her feet. Paige had a habit of looking away when Emily complimented her or when, Emily guessed, she felt embarrassed.

"Is that your brother?"

"Yeah. Mark. We were three years apart."

"You guys look a lot alike."

"Yeah, we used to get that a lot from people when they saw us together. He used to be a swimmer too actually. He was really good."

Emily noticed Paige kept using the past tense when talking about him.

"Well I think it's a great picture of you both and your parents." Emily said sweetly while returning the picture frame back to the table and took a few steps back to put a safer distance between herself and Paige. She really wasn't sure if Paige had freaked out when she fixed her strap or if it was just a weird coincidence that she took the step back into the table.

She had wanted to know more about Paige and her brother, but figured Paige would tell her more when and if she wanted to.

"Oh, and speaking of swimming, here."

Emily reached out her hand that held Paige's goggles and swim cap.

"These are for you."

Paige met Emily's hand with her own and grabbed onto the goggles and cap. Their hands made the tiniest bit of contact and it sent an almost electric pulse through Emily's finger tips. She began to crave more contact. It was an amazing sensation that she wanted more of.

"Oh yeah, thanks so much for dropping them off. That really means a lot."

"No problem. Turns out you're only about a fifteen minute drive from my place."

"That's convenient."

"Yeah, turns out you've been closer to me than I ever knew."

Paige held a smile on her face and kept eye contact with Emily.

"So are you home alone right now?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, my dad is working late again tonight. He has a new business deal that almost fell through earlier so he's doing what he can to get it fixed. He's normally only home all day on Sundays so him being gone all day Saturday isn't anything new. My mom went out with a few work friends after she dropped me off at home from practice."

"Ah okay."

Emily saw that Paige was fidgeting with the goggle straps now.

"How's your leg feel now?" Emily asked.

Paige reached down to her thigh and rubbed it.

"Oh, it's great, wouldn't even have known it was bothering me earlier."

"Good, I'm glad."

Emily wasn't exactly sure but she sensed that Paige might not be in the mood for talking right now so she figured she'd give her a way out.

"I guess I should go now."

Paige looked up with a face that looked full of disappointment.

"Oh, please don't, …I—I mean. My folks won't be back for a while. I'm home alone. I wouldn't mind the company, unless you have something to do, or somewhere to be."

Emily felt a slight rush of excitement. She held her eye contact with Paige and smiled happily.

"No, no I don't actually. I was just going to be a couch potato at home. I'd love to keep you company."

"Great. Awesome."

Emily watched Paige as she came away from the side table and started to walk down the hall towards the back of the house. She had no choice but to follow. Paige's sweatpants were low enough on her hips and her tank top trailed high enough up her back that Emily could spot the dimples on her lower back.

_God, that's so hot._

Even with Paige's sweatpants hanging slightly baggy, Emily had an amazing view of her nicely toned butt. And she was relishing it. She did everything in her power to ignore the dirty thoughts that kept forming in her mind and to stop herself from giving into the urge to throw Paige against the wall and kiss her hard. Emily was so ridiculously attracted to Paige that it was causing her to want to do things she never once would have thought about doing with a girl she'd only met earlier that day. But there was an undeniable attraction that she felt between them and she was almost at a loss of what to do about it. She knew though that it was way too soon to make any rash decisions. It could completely ruin any chance she may have with Paige. And she was willing to wait out her suffering until the right time.

Paige walked them into the living room and took a seat on her large brown suede couch. She leaned forward and placed her goggles and swim cap gently on the coffee table that sat in front of her. Emily had been so busy watching Paige that she had forgotten that she was still standing off to the side of the couch.

"You can sit down if you like. I promise don't bite _that_ hard." Paige joked while patting the sofa cushion next to her.

Emily let out a small nervous chuckle and took a seat next to Paige but made sure to maintain a respective distance.

Paige crossed her legs in front of her which actually caused her right knee to be just inches from Emily's left thigh. Taking her eyes off the small amount of distance that separated their two bodies, Emily looked up at the television and noticed that a documentary about gorillas was currently on.

Paige must have noticed Emily's attention on the television because then she said,

"Oh, ha. Yeah, I'm a bit of a nerd. I watch a lot of documentaries. I think they are so interesting. I figure if I'm having a lazy moment and watching TV, I might as well learn something from it. Did you know that western lowland gorillas are considered to be critically endangered? Their population has fallen by more than eighty percent in three generations. It's also estimated that three hundred gorillas are poached each year in the Republic of Congo an—oh gosh. Sorry. I'm rambling, you don't really care."

Paige was looking at Emily with a face full of embarrassment. She bent her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around the front of her shins while resting her chin in the space between her touching knees. Her gaze was now focused on the TV.

"No, no. I care. Really. You shouldn't have stopped. I didn't know any of that." Emily said.

Paige brought her head up from its original resting position and looked over at Emily.

"Ha, you're just being polite."

Emily smiled at Paige to reassure her. She was actually interested in what Paige had to say. She wished Paige had kept talking because she found it to be extremely cute to see Paige slightly worked up over something. And she couldn't help but adore her voice. It had this dangerously low, yet subtle smokey quality to it that Emily thought was extremely sexy whenever she heard her talk.

"No, I swear I'm interested. Tell me more." Emily said as she turned her body facing Paige completely and slid closer to Paige. Emily's left leg was now bent, resting on the couch cushion, her shin parallel to Paige's side. Her right leg was draped over the front of the couch seat cushion and maintained her foots planted position on the floor.

Paige's eyes lit up and she smiled widely. "Well, this documentary in particular is really neat because Natalie Portman is in it. I love her. It's an Animal Planet documentary called Saving a Species Gorillas on the Brink. It actually won an Emmy. There was a point where she was only about five feet away from an actual gorilla. It was nuts. I mean can you imagine. That'd be so surreal to me."

Emily loved Natalie Portman too, but she figured Paige probably just meant she liked her as an actress. Emily found Natalie to be _extremely_ attractive as well as a fantastic actress. There was a difference and she wondered if _maybe_, just _maybe_, Paige liked Natalie Portman the same way she did.

"That's really neat. It's always nice to see famous people doing things for a good cause. She's trying to help educate others about this problem and she's giving a voice to animals that can't actually speak on behalf of themselves. She has a pretty big fan base, I'm sure it's helping to get others excited about the cause too."

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing and she's genuinely eager to do what she can to help raise awareness. I don't know, she just seems like a really neat person."

Emily and Paige proceeded to talk between commercial breaks and enjoy each other's company as the documentary continued to play on the TV. It was extremely easy to talk to Paige and Emily was glad she was finally seeing a more relaxed side of her. Their conversation never got too deep, it mostly consisted of making fun of some of the commercials or talking about new movies they were looking forward to seeing in the coming months.

Emily noted that Paige was sarcastic and had a fairly dry sense of humor. She was constantly catching Emily off guard. It was refreshing to be kept on her toes and not know what to expect from the other girl. They continued to share lots more laughs throughout the evening and Emily noticed she had been smiling so much that her cheeks were actually starting to feel sore.

As the night went on Emily realized that Paige was a mystery that she wanted to solve. But while Emily was finally finding interest in someone else, she just worried that there wasn't a single chance the girl would be interested in Emily as more than friends.

By the time the documentary had come to a finish, Paige was now sitting on the floor with her back leaning against the middle of the couch. Her arms were relaxed in her lap and her legs were stretched out in front of her under the coffee table. Emily had taken the opportunity, when Paige deserted the couch, to stretch out across the entire couch laying flat on her stomach with her head resting on its side on top of her crossed arms.

Emily wasn't sure if her proximately to Paige had made her uncomfortable or if Paige really did feel more comfortable on the floor like she said she did. She tried not to read too much into Paige moving off the couch.

Paige turned her head towards Emily's and asked,

"Are you thirsty or hungry?"

"HHHmm, I guess I wouldn't mind a glass of water actually. I didn't hydrate much after that unplanned race we had."

Emily eyes were level with Paige's lips. She couldn't help but wonder what it might be like to kiss her lips.

Paige jumped up and in doing so she managed to bump her left knee on the edge of the coffee table.

"Son of a bii—scuit! Ow, ow, ouch. That's definitely going to leave a bruise" Paige whimpered as she started to hop up and down in place and then began rubbing her hands over the spot on her knee that Emily guessed had been bumped.

Emily adored how clumsy and accident prone Paige was. She thought it was extremely cute. Earlier, she initially thought Paige was just letting her down easy when she offered to help her out of the pool, but as evening had progressed, she could easily tell Paige was being totally and completely honest about her clumsiness.

Emily gracefully got off the couch and grabbed Paige's elbow to guide her over to the coffee table. She beckoned her to take a seat on top of it.

"Wait here, I'll grab some ice. Do you have any plastic sandwich bags?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, but it's fine I can grab it on my own." Paige whined.

"No, I'll do it. Stay seated."

Paige let out an exaggerated breath of air and responded with "Fiiine."

Emily could tell Paige was either fiercely independent or that she wasn't used to having people do things for her or take care of her. Emily was hoping to change that.

"They should be in the second drawer over from the sink." Paige called over to Emily who was rummaging through cupboards and drawers in the kitchen to find a baggy.

"Found em" Emily called back.

It only took her a couple more minutes to fill the bag up with some ice, seal it, and then grab a paper towel to wrap the bag with.

Emily made her way back through the kitchen and into the living room where Paige was still seated on the table with her leg stretched out and her hands rubbing her knee still.

"Here." Emily said handing the bad of ice to Paige.

Paige placed it on top of her knee and rested her hand over it. Emily looked down and let out a small amused laugh.

"You realize it'd work better if you rolled your pant leg up, right?" She asked Paige.

Paige looked down at her knee and then up at Emily with a face that looked as though she realized Emily was right.

"Here, I'll do it, if you don't mind." Emily stated more-so than asked.

She knelt down on the ground and started tugging on Paige's sweatpants leg guiding it up her shin and then eventually above Paige's knee. She folded it once more so it would stay in place. She took a second to glance and study Paige's new injury and without thinking, started to lightly run her fingers over the red swollen spot on her knee.

"Ow-that tickles." Paige let out.

Emily snapped her hand back as soon as she had thought she might have been hurting Paige.

"I'm sorry. Sorry. Wait, why did you say ow if that tickled?"

"Ha, I don't know. It's a little tender but you touching it tickled. My brain didn't know the proper words to use to react to the sensation." Paige said shrugging as she placed the ice on her now bare knee.

"Brrrr- and that feels _really_ cold."

Emily laughed. "Well that _is_ the idea."

"Oh shush" Paige said while swinging her free arm out to playfully hit Emily.

Emily, of course, was ready for this and threw her hand out to stop Paige from actually hitting her.

"Cat-like reflexes, remember?" Emily teased as she still held onto Paige's forearm.

"Maybe I should take notes." Paige said in a serious tone of voice.

Emily laughed and released Paige's arm before it might have become too weird and took a seat on the ground leaning her back against the couch as she faced Paige.

"Oh and I should _definitely_ start taking notes on your ways to cover up the slipping of profanity. Son of a biscuit, really?"

Paige smiled sheepishly and caused Emily to shake her head at Paige and laugh some more.

"Listen, I don't want to be a buzz kill or anything but I feel as though I owe an explanation to you."

"What about?" Emily asked with a puzzled look.

"Well, why it was so important to me that you dropped my things off tonight. Why I couldn't wait."

"Oh, um well, only if you want to. You don't have to tell me anything you aren't ready to."

"I guess I feel like it's better to talk about it now so it doesn't come up as a surprise later."

"Okay."

"You probably already noticed how beat up those goggles are," Paige started as she turned and looked over her back to the goggles that were still sitting on the table where she had left them earlier.

"...they were a gift. From my brother."


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey :) So I've been a bit busy the past several days preparing for my classes that started up yesterday. I hate to say it, but there will probably be delays in updates. I wish I could keep them on a timely schedule, but now I'm juggling homework and studying on top of other life responsibilities. Thank you for being patient with me and thank you for following the story. It means a lot to me. You all are great. The reviews I receive continue to bring smiles to my face so I'd also like to thank those who continue to show this story their love on a regular basis. If I didn't hear from you guys, I'd have no clue how much you all are loving the story. So thank you for the support. Mmk, well I'm sorry this chapter isn't very long. It just made sense for me to cut it off where I did. The next chapter has been a bit tedious for me to write, but I suppose that's what makes this whole thing fun. Enjoy!**

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Emily maintained eye contact with Paige and continued to listen to her every word. She felt as though Paige might actually be opening up to her.

"The thing is, Mark died in a car accident a couple years ago in the middle of my eighth grade year. He was a junior at Jefferson. He had given me those goggles just a few weeks before it happened. They were a gift when I had managed to beat one of my personal best times at a fairly important swim competition. He had a pair just like them that he swam with and he told me that if I was able to beat my time, he'd buy me a pair. I had cut my time by a few seconds and I think it was because he had given me that extra motivational factor."

Emily stayed silent and watched as Paige inhaled deeply, almost as if she was mustering up enough courage to continue her story. She looked down at the bag of melting ice on her knee and shifted it a tiny bit.

"He was my biggest fan. I really looked up to him. And when he died, all I felt that I really had left of him were those goggles he gave me. They're pretty beat up, and I don't use them all the time anymore. Only when I'm thinking of him on a particular day. Today was one of those days. I was extremely nervous about starting on a new team at a new school and I know that if he was still here today, he would have been able to say all the right things to get me to calm down and relax. He was the only person that ever truly knew the _real_ me. We didn't really have secrets. And ever since he died, my parents became even more wrapped up in their jobs. Probably to keep busy so they don't have to think about it. They're hardly ever home and sometimes I feel as though they forget I'm still here. My dad only ever asks me about my grades in school or my times in swimming. I guess it's a good thing I honestly love to swim, because I don't know if I could have continued with it after Mark was gone. The water has a way of making me feel at peace with the world around me. When I'm upset, I swim. When I'm angry, I swim. It helps clear my head. And it sounds dumb, but sometimes I feel as though when I'm in the water, I can see him swimming right next to me."

Paige looked up at Emily. Emily noticed a new look of sadness in her eyes.

"Sorry, I don't know where all that came from. I didn't mean to spill my life story. I just wanted to tell you why I wanted you to bring me the goggles tonight."

Emily smiled softly at Paige and looked at her with understanding eyes.

"You didn't want anything to happen to them."

"Right."

"I understand."

"Thanks. I mean in all honesty, I trusted they'd probably be safe in your possession, but I didn't want to take the chance."

"No, I totally get it. I appreciate you telling me why they are so important to you. That must have been a hard thing to do. Especially hard to tell someone you don't know every very well about something so personal."

"I just figured it was something I should tell you after you made an effort to drive out here and drop them off. I guess I just didn't want you to think that I was super possessive over a beat up pair of goggles."

"Well I'm glad you felt like you could tell me. Loss is a really hard thing to work through; I know all to well how losing someone can affect a person."

Emily, herself, had lost someone near and dear to her heart.

Emily and Paige grew silent for a while. Paige returned her attention to her knee and was now in the process of lifting up the half melted bag of ice.

"I think my knee is all better. It doesn't hurt so much anymore."

Paige stood up. Emily gazed up at her from where she still sat on the floor.

Emily watched as Paige walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. She stayed where she was and took a glance at her watch. It now read that is was after ten o'clock.

_Wow, how did the time pass so fast? _

She could hear Paige emptying the mixture of water and ice from the bag into the sink.

"Hey, Paige?"

"MMm yeah?"

"I need to get going. My mom didn't want me out very late, and I think I'm pushing it already as it is."

"Oh right, yeah. Okay."

Emily heard Paige walk her way across the kitchen floor and eventually saw her figure in the corner of the eye. She turned her head towards Paige and looked up to make eye contact.

"So is your knee really feeling better now that you've walked on it a bit?"

"It sure is."

Emily looked at Paige with slight skepticism.

"Look if you don't believe me do you think I'd be able to do this right now?"

At that exact moment Paige broke into a very odd, out of rhythm almost-tap dance routine that caught Emily completely off guard. She was waving her arms stiffly in a crisscross motion across the front of her body and then resorted to spirit fingers as she came to a close in her short, but very entertaining routine.

Had Emily been standing at the start of this spectacle, there was no doubt in her mind she would have dropped hard to the ground like a rock because she was so overcome with laughter.

Between bursts of laughter and small intakes of air she managed to spit out,

"Ooh n-no you didn't jus- just do that. God. Wh-what did I just witness. Paige, serious-ly. There are just some things I can- I cannot un-see. I'm sa- I'm sorry. But that was awful."

Paige took a small curtsy and smiled cutely at Emily.

"See? All better." Paige affirmed.

"Okay, okay. Fine I believe you."

Paige grinned victoriously at Emily.

"Good. But now I'm going to have to kick you out. I need my beauty sleep." Paige stated with a now _very _serious face.

_How can she switch to a straight face so fast?_

"Oh well by all means; don't let me delay that any longer. Besides, it's not like I mentioned I had to leave just a few minutes ago anyways."

"Well I figured this way would make you feel less guilty about ditching me for your _mom_." Paige winked a couple of times as if she was pointing out that Emily might have been making up an excuse for leaving.

"Alright, alright. Well, it's so kind of you to be so considerate of my feelings. But, come here for a sec."

Paige looked down at Emily curiously but took a few steps towards Emily.

Emily reached up to Paige's still rolled up pant leg and started to unroll it so it could return to it's normal length.

"Oh, thanks." Paige said.

Emily looked up and smiled at Paige before she stood up from her spot on the floor by the couch. She really didn't want to go home, but she knew she'd be hearing from her mom at any minute as to why she was pushing her curfew.

Emily started walking towards the hallway.

"I'll walk you to the door."

Paige seemed to have followed behind her.

"So you can kick me as I leave?" Emily joked as she twisted her head around, followed by her whole body, to look directly at Paige. She was now walking backwards down the hallway towards the front door.

With an overly-exaggerated shocked expression Paige responded with,

"What? Ha, NO. I'm not _literally_ going to kick you out. Goodness, who do you take me for?" Paige lightly pushed her hand into the front of Emily's shoulder.

The push took Emily by surprise, knocking her back a bit. To catch her balance she grabbed for Paige's arm when her hand had made contact with her shoulder. Emily's back slammed into the door and because Emily had gripped onto Paige for support, Paige slammed into Emily.

"Ompff", breathed out Emily as the air was knocked out of her.

The two girl's faces were now inches from each other. With Paige being a couple inches taller than Emily, it made it nearly impossible for Emily not to stare at her lips when they were hovering just slightly above her own. She swallowed hard and took a few seconds to assess the situation.

Emily saw out the corner of her eye that Paige had managed to throw her free arm out in front of her when Emily had pulled Paige forward with her. And now the palm of Paige's hand was resting flat against the door, slightly level with Emily's cheek. Emily realized she still had hold of Paige's arm. Because Paige's arm was still being held by Emily she couldn't move back. And because Emily's back was already pressed against the door and Paige's other arm was blocking her in, she realized what she needed to do.

Even though it was the exact opposite of what she _really_ wanted to do, she quickly released Paige's arm.

To Emily's surprise, there was a slightly longer delay than she was expecting in how fast Paige stepped back from her. It was almost as if she had been contemplating something herself.

"Sorry." Paige whispered out while looking at Emily with worry, almost fear, in her eyes.

Emily also noticed that Paige's face was flushed now.

"Don't be, I grabbed your arm. It was my fault."

"You wouldn't have needed to grab me had I not pushed you." Paige crossed her arms across her chest and turned her gaze down to the floor.

"Don't feel bad about it. I provoked you; I deserved that shove fair-in-square. Besides, you gave me fair warning earlier by the pool. I knew what I was risking spending more time with you. It was only a matter of time before I became one of your unsuspecting victims. And I'm fine. Got the wind knocked out of me. But I'm fine. Seriously. I'm sure we probably looked ridiculous, but we managed to stay upright. It was a nice use of teamwork. " Emily joked.

Paige still wouldn't look up

"Paige?"

Emily took a step forward and poked Paige in the side. This caused Paige to giggle out in surprise and return her gaze to Emily.

"Okay, okay. I believe you."

"Good." Emily smiled at Paige.

Emily turned her attention to the door and started to unlock both of the locks. She pulled the door open and took a step outside. Surprised by the change in temperature her breath caught in her throat. She automatically reached up for her hood and pulled it up over her head. Turning around she smiled at Paige, who was now standing in the doorway and said,

"I had fun keeping you company tonight, we should do it again sometime."

Paige returned Emily's smile with one of her own and replied,

"Yeah, definitely. I'd like that."

Emily reached into her pants pocket and grabbed hold of her car keys. She turned back around, hopped down Paige's porch steps, and ran gracefully to her now unlocked car. Opening her door and sliding into the driver's seat she then guided the keys into the ignition and started up the engine. She pulled out her phone and sent her mom a quick text to let know she was now on her way home. She turned her car around in Paige's driveway and as she was following the darkened road leading further away from Paige's house, she took a look in her rearview mirror, and there was Paige, still standing in the doorway of her house, watching as Emily drove away.

Emily smiled to herself and hoped that maybe, just maybe she _had_ been wrong about Paige.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Hey! So I'm going to keep this brief because this is the longest chapter I've written so far. I hope that it gives you some insight to Paige and helps you better understand why she is so reluctant to give into the urges she has whenever she is around Emily. **_

_**With that said, thank you again to the few that sent reviews on my last chapter. I hope you can find some appreciation in this one as it relates completely to Paige and her past.**_

**_I have to warn that there is a *** Trigger warning: [Self harm]*** in this chapter as it dives further into Paige's past. So please, continue reading at your own discretion._**

**Reviews are appreciated. Thank you to my new followers! **

^^^ ^^^ Paige's POV

Paige watched Emily drive away until she was no longer in view. It wasn't until Emily was out of view that she realized just how cold it was outside, and just how cold she was.

She took a step back and closed the door. As she finished locking it up, she exhaled deeply and rested her forehead against the door while shutting her eyes tightly. Her pulse was finally settling back to normal. Her heartbeat became less deafening in her ears and she was finally able to focus on her thoughts.

_What almost just happened? What did I almost do? How could I be so dumb?_

Paige was feeling a bit panicked. It had been a while since she felt, to an extent, so out of control with her thoughts and even her actions. That whole encounter with Emily left her feeling a multitude of things and she was now overwhelmed.

She replayed what had happened only moments ago in her head.

She had pushed her hand lightly into Emily's shoulder. But it had obviously been too forceful because the next thing she remembered was Emily's hand grabbing onto her forearm. The actual incident happened so fast she didn't really know what was going on but she recalled throwing her free arm out towards the door. Then she remembered slamming into Emily and feeling her hot breath as it had escaped her lungs on Paige's impact. Her hand had ended up flat against the door just beside Emily's face and some of Emily's raven colored hair had been tickling the side of her wrist. The next thing she remembered was carefully taking a controlled breath in and capturing the scent of her hair. A mixture of coconut and mint. It had finally dried by the time their visit had come to an end and Paige had been admiring how nicely Emily's hair could air dry and still look like she took the time to style it. Paige had to stop herself from wanting to run her hand through Emily's silky locks when she found herself so close to the other girl. Then Paige remembered,

_I almost kissed her. What the hell was I thinking? _

Paige would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she did, in fact, want to kiss Emily. Right then and there when she had Emily pinned against the door. It was the perfect opportunity to just plant one on Emily's lips and take control of the situation. She'd been staring at Emily's lips just after accidentally slamming into her. Finding herself just a mere two inches away from her lips. Hovering just slightly above Emily's. It was all her eyes could focus on. Emily's perfectly shaped lips just teasing Paige. Almost asking to be kissed.

_God, I wanted to kiss her so bad. That would have been the dumbest thing to do. I almost did too and then.. _

The way that Emily had released her arm, almost too suddenly, had Paige thinking that she had freaked Emily out. Their close proximity probably made Emily uncomfortable. Soon after Emily's hand had left her arm, she snapped back into reality from her Emily induced daze. The removal of Emily's hand left her with an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. But it wasn't until a few short moments later that she realized she was still standing too close to the other girl and she needed to put more space between them. Paige wondered if Emily might have noticed her hesitancy and that worried her.

_Was she just being polite when she said she was fine, that she knew it was an accident?_

Often times Paige read too much into small forms of physical contact. She had so little of it that sometimes a pat on the back or a lingering hand on her leg meant more to her than it probably, in all reality, did to the other person. And when it came to her showing any kind of affection to anyone else, she frequently feared rejection.

Recalling the whole Emily incident had worked her up again. Paige took a deep controlled breath in and then let one out. She continued to do this until she was as relaxed as she could be.

She turned so her back was now resting against the door and she slowly eased herself down into a sitting position on the floor. Wrapping her arms around the front of her legs, she hugged them to her body as tight as she could and rested her forehead down on the tops of her knees.

At that moment Paige was feeling very weak and confused and more than anything it was one of those moments where she just wanted to talk to Mark.

Flashback

"Yeah, well it looked like he thought he had me beat already. He must have let up on his stroke just before he hit the wall. And that was when I—. Hello? Earth to Paige. Are you listening?"

Paige felt Mark lightly kick her foot under the table.

"Huh, what? Sorry. Yeah, you totally took him by surprise. The look on his face was priceless when he saw your name at the top of the screen in front of his. It was great. I don't think I've heard mom and dad scream so loud before."

"What's on your mind there kiddo? I can tell something has you bothered. Is it the race coming up?"

Paige hated how her brother was always able to tell if something was on her mind or if she was upset about something. It was like a sixth sense he had. He often joked that her name suited her well because he could read her clear as writing on a page in a book.

"No, but now that you've mentioned it I'm thinking about that too. Thanks." Paige said while dipping her French fry in some of the ketchup on her plate. She proceeded to draw abstract designs on the part of the plate that was bare of the food that she'd already eaten.

"Well, then what else is it? It seems like you are contemplating something. You know you can tell me anything or talk to me about anything right? I thought I've made that clear enough by now."

Paige looked up and made eye contact with Mark.

"I know."

"What's holding you back?" Mark asked.

"I don't know. Me I guess."

"Want to get out of here?"

"Yes."

Mark stood up from his seat and led the way out of their favorite diner. They had a ritual of eating there together after either of them had a swim meet, whether they had won or not. Today it was Mark who took first place in all three of his races.

Paige followed quietly behind him and once they were outside, Mark allowed Paige to catch up and then he wrapped his arm around her as they walked side by side to Mark's bright red Mustang. It had been a gift from their dad when Mark got his driver's license. Paige wondered if she'd get a car of her own one day too.

Mark unlocked the car and walked around to the driver's side. Paige opened her door and slid right into the passenger seat closing the door gently so now she was shut inside. She reached for her seat-belt and fastened it in place. She was so lost in her own thoughts that it wasn't until a little later that she realized Mark wasn't taking the normal route to get home.

"Where are we going?" Paige asked as she looked over to her brother.

"You'll see." He replied with a smile on his face.

Paige looked out her window and decided not to put up a fight about their detour home. After all, she loved any amount of time she spent with him. They ended up pulling into the side parking lot of the Jefferson High School.

"What are we doing here?" Paige asked.

"Come on. Grab your bag." Mark replied as he was already halfway out of the car.

Paige looked down between her feet, where her swim duffle was located. Still slightly confused she did what she was told, grabbed her bag, and then exited the car.

Once out of the car Paige noticed that Mark had his swim bag as well. He locked up the car and led the way to the side door of the gym.

"Mark, it's the weekend, what are we doing here? It's all locked up."

"Not if you have the key to get in." Mark said while dangling a set of keys in front of Paige's eyes with a mischievous smile on his face.

"How'd you get those?"

"Let's just say that's for me to know and for you to never find out." He replied winking at his little sister.

"Fine, whatever, but it's all on you if we get caught."

Mark held the door open for Paige and she willingly took a step inside. He locked the door up behind him and led the way down the hall. Paige stopped in place a little ways down the hall.

"Mark, seriously what are we doing here? What if we get caught? Won't it be like breaking and entering or something?"

"Paige, _seriously_, do you trust me?"

"You know I do."

"Then keep walking."

Paige let out an exaggerated breath. And kept following her brother. Mark took a turn to right which left them in front of the locker rooms. It appeared he only had the key to the male's locker room.

"Okay, so I only have the key to the guy's room. So, I'll go in first and change. Then I'll come out here and get you and you can just meet me through the door in the back of the locker room that leads out to the pool. Okay?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Lizzy, stop getting so wound up. Relax. It's okay to break the rules every once in a while."

He had just referred to her with her childhood nickname. Her middle name was Elizabeth; she was named after her mom. When they were growing up Mark had come home from school one day with the realization that her middle name had part of the word lizard in it. He had the oh-so-brilliant idea of referring to Paige as Lizard for the next few weeks after that. She was just starting grade school at that point and she hated the amusement he found in calling her a lizard. At the time she was also going through a phase where she thought lizards were creepy and gross, especially after his pet lizard at the time had managed to crawl up her leg one day when it had escaped out of it's cage. Eventually the name evolved into Lizzy. He rarely used it anymore, but if he really wanted to make a point he'd say it just to give her enough push to usually do something she didn't particularly want to.

Paige swung a quick punch into Mark's gut. He definitely wasn't expecting it and it had knocked the wind out of him a bit.

"Oooff."

Sucking in some air he spit out,

"Nice one. I've taught you well."

"Go change, and don't call me that ever again." Paige said smiling innocently at her brother. Mark laughed and regained his composure, shaking his head and smiling as he disappeared into the locker room.

Paige looked to her left and to her right. She was extremely worried someone would see her waiting outside the locker rooms. She hated finding herself in situations that could possibly cause her to get in trouble. It had been less than five minutes when Mark finally appeared from the locker room changed into his swim suit.

"Come on."

Paige still looked hesitant but followed him in anyways.

"It smells like a bunch of sweaty dudes in here. Gross." Paige said as she wrinkled her nose.

"Ha, what did you expect? A field of flowers? Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies?" Her brother responded as he nudged her slightly with his elbow.

His light nudge actually threw her sideways into a wall of lockers. Compared to his six-foot tall lanky stature and slight muscular build, she was only about five foot two inches at the time and had a tiny frame. It didn't take much for her to get thrown off balance and it didn't help that she was naturally clumsy.

To this day she only topped her height off at about five foot six inches, the muscle build in her back and chest filled out more as her workout intensities increased with time. She was toned, but not overly muscular. Her frequent runs and bike rides had done wonders for her butt and legs. She definitely wasn't that awkward little girl from just about years ago. She was pretty confident she was finished growing. But she'd always wondered if and almost hoped that she would catch up in height with Mark. She seemed to have been blessed with her mother's genes when it came to height whereas Mark took after their dad. Their mom was a whopping height of five foot three and their dad stood at six foot. At least she bypassed her, Paige often thought to herself.

"Watch it. I'm not against punching you again and harder if I have to. I don't appreciate your sarcastic tone. Smartass." Paige spat out as she re-hoisted her swim duffle onto her shoulder and stood up as tall as she could.

"At the wee age of 14, I see my vocabulary is finally rubbing off on you."

"Yeah yeah, you're corrupting me, whatever. Just leave me so I can change."

"I'll be by the pool. Don't take too long."

Mark left Paige to change and when she finally appeared from the locker room door she stood in place watching her brother from afar. A huge grin had spread across her face as he watched him climb up the five meter diving platform, that stood at the far end of the pool, and run full speed off of it tucking into a forward flip and then pulled into a fairly sloppy dive just before he hit the water that created quite a bit of splash.

_At least he didn't belly flop._

She walked her way down the side of the pool to meet him as he began to climb out of the water.

"Nice one." She said as she held her hand out to help him out of the pool.

Naturally, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the pool with him.

_Should have guessed that would happen._

"Why are you such an ass some times?" Paige said as she resurfaced.

"I wouldn't be doing my job as your older brother if I wasn't." He said as he then took his hand placed it on top of her head and dunked her under the water.

When she bobbed up the second time she saw that he had already managed to exit the pool and he was now making his way over to the spring board. She pulled herself out of the water and sat on the edge of the pool wall and watched. She was curious as to what kind of trick he was going to do now.

Mark carefully walked his way to the edge of the board and while facing Paige he began to jump up and down on it. He continued to do this until she guessed he felt he was high enough in the air. She really wasn't sure what he was doing. He lept off the board leaning his body to the side and brought himself into a tucked position wrapping his knees with his arms. He was rotating sideways out towards the water and held with position until he hit the water. It was best described as a fancy type of cannon-ball and the splash was quite enormous in Paige's opinion.

He swam his way back up and looked over smiling as though he was proud of himself at Paige. She was laughing in amusement and decided she'd try a few jumps herself.

She made her way over to the springboard and she began to catch air as she jumped up and down on the board. A few more jumps later she was off the board and tucked herself forward, touching her pointed toes at the end of her perfectly straight legs before unfolding herself and managing to hit the water in a decent dive form.

When she swam back up to the surface and looked over to her brother and smiled.

"Well, isn't that cute." He called to her.

"Made almost minimal splash on that one." She called back.

"Paige, let loose. Do something crazy and take me by surprise. Don't think so hard about trying to be perfect with everything you do. Try something new, take a chance. You only live once."

Paige furrowed her brows. She didn't know what she could do to surprise him. But she figured she'd at least try. Pulling herself out of the pool once more she decided that she would use the platform this time. Mark was sitting on the edge of the springboard watching her as she climbed to the top.

Paige still wasn't sure what she should do when she finally got to the top. She was slightly afraid of heights and she was now regretting her decision to jump from the platform. She walked over to the edge and looked down.

_ Oh god. Why did I just do that? This is a lot higher up than it looks._

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath in. She'd never hear the end of it she backed down now.

_Okay, you can do this. Just take a deep breath and go for it._

She took several steps backwards and decided she'd just run and jump.

_Count to three and go. Just do it._

"What's taking so long?" Mark called up to her.

"Shut up." She yelled back.

_1,..2..3. _

Paige started to run off the platform but just as soon as she came to the edge of it she hesitated in her next step off. This caused her to body to lean awkwardly forward and before she knew it she was somersaulting forwards uncontrollably in the air headed towards the water. She hit the water on her back causing the air to get knocked out of her.

The next thing she knew Mark was pulling her up to the surface and she was gasping for air.

"Ow—th—that kinda hurt." She huffed out.

"That was one of the biggest splashes I think I've ever seen. I think you topped mine. Good job." Mark stated with an amused tone of voice.

"That was a complete accident." She replied as he was still pulling her over to the wall of the pool.

"Well it was a crazily executed accident." He joked.

"Thanks, I guess."

"Here, grab onto wall. You need to catch your breath."

Paige now had hold of the wall. She brought both of her arms out of the pool, resting them on the tile; bending both of her arms at her elbows she crossed them so her head could lie on top. At this point, her face was facing away from Mark.

"So, are you gonna finally tell me what's been on your mind?"

Paige turned her head so she was now facing Mark, who was now sitting outside of the pool. She kept her head resting on her arms.

She took an exaggerate breath out.

"Okay. Well how about if I guess what it might be? If I guess correctly in three tries, you have to come clean. Deal?"

"Fiiinne. Deal." Paige breathed out.

"Well, you already told me it wasn't the race coming up. Not exactly anyways, so my first guess is…you failed a test at school?"

"Nope."

"Hmmm. Okay, okay. Two more guesses. Give me a minute." He said as he kicked his foot into the water causing a bit of a splash to hit Paige in the face.

"Watch it." She stated.

"Or I'll take back our deal; we didn't pinky promise on it. Therefore it's not official."

Mark let a small chuckle escape him.

"You know what I think it is?" He asked.

"Huh?" She asked back.

"Well more specifically, _who_ I think it is?" He asked again.

_Damn, he's good._

Paige didn't have to respond to his question. It was rhetorical.

"Erin." He stated.

Paige lifted her head up and held his gaze.

"Bingo." She said while beginning to pull herself up out of the pool.

"You're not going to get off that easy." He said.

"I figured as much."

Paige was now sitting beside him, with her legs still submerged in the water.

It had been several months before that, that Paige had told Mark that she had a crush on someone at school. She had worked herself about it so much that she was in tears by the time she finally came clean about who it was. Naturally he assumed it was a boy, but to his slight surprise, Paige had told him it was a girl. More specifically, her best friend at the time, Erin.

Paige was so worried that he would be mad at her or make fun of her for her feelings. Tell her she was confused, that it wasn't right, that she needed to forget about it. Instead, she found that he had wrapped her up in his long strong arms and hugged her tightly until she was finished crying. He turned out to be really supportive of her and he promised that he would be there for whenever she needed him. If anyone gave her any problems about it he joked that he'd beat them up for her. He also told her not to care about what anyone else thought. That she needed to stay true to herself, and with time it would get better. He said not to feel ashamed of her feelings and he still loved her just the same. It had been a huge weight off of her shoulders and after their conversation, she was glad she had told him the truth.

"Are you still trying to figure out if you should tell her how you feel?" He asked.

Paige looked from her feet in the water up to his deep blue eyes.

"Yeaahhh." She reluctantly let out.

"You know what I think you should do? I think you should just yell out to her one day in the middle of the courtyard and say,

"Erin I have a huge crush on you, will you be my girlfriend?!"

"Oh shut up." Paige said as she grabbed his arm and attempted to force him back into the water. He was too heavy and she ended up falling in as he stayed exactly where he was.

When she resurfaced she could hear him laughing at her sad attempt to get him in the pool.

"It's not that easy." She finally said to him.

"I know, little one." He said to her.

Little one seemed to be one of his terms of endearment for her. Which she guessed made sense because he was so much bigger than her. But she still didn't love it. But it was better than Lizzy in her opinion.

"But in all honesty," He started then stopped as if he was thinking about how to phrase his words the right way.

Paige just waited.

"..from what you've told me, there is a chance she may like you back as more than a friend. Girls are tricky though. I have the same problem figuring out which one's like me as more than friends and which one's don't. But even if she doesn't, if you two are as close of friends as it seems, she should be able to get over it and still be there for you as your best friend. It's a tricky situation and you need to use your best judgment. You need to ask yourself if knowing whether or not she returns those feelings is worth possibly losing her as a friend. And if she rejects your friendship after you tell her, then she didn't even deserve to be your friend in the first place. A true friend wouldn't stop being your friend even after you tell them something like that. But just know that even if things don't go the way you want them to, I'll always be here for you no matter what. Metaphorically speaking, just like when we were little, I'll pick you back up when you take a fall, brush off the dirt from your knees and your hands, slap a band aid on the cut, and give you a giant kiss on your forehead to make you feel better. I promise."

Mark held out his hand. The only finger sticking out was his pinky. Paige smiled and met his pinky with hers. They wrapped their pinkies around each other.

"You promise?" She asked.

"Forever and always." He promised.

Paige was now sobbing hard as she still clutched her legs and pressed her forehead harder to her knees.

At the time, both Mark and Paige never would have thought he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to her. A few days later, with a new-found confidence after talking with Mark, Paige had decided to write a letter to Erin. The letter told Erin that she liked her as more than a friend and that she had hoped she felt the same way. She tucked it away into Erin's locker one day and waited nervously for the next few days to get a response back.

Erin did in fact write her back. But the reply was exactly everything Paige had feared the most by telling Erin the truth. Erin told Paige she was disgusted. She said Paige would go to hell and that she didn't want to talk to Paige ever again or want Paige to ever come near her again, making it sound like "what Paige had" was contagious.

Later that same day, after she had received the letter from Erin, police showed up on the front of Paige's doorstep. It wasn't until she heard her mom sobbing loudly downstairs that she realized anything bad had happened. That's when they got the news that Mark had died in a car crash on his way home from school. Someone had lost control of their car while dodging a deer on their side of the road and hit him head on. He wasn't wearing his seat-belt and he had died on impact. Paige was absolutely, positively, beyond devastated. She not only lost a friend that day, but she also lost her brother, and undoubtedly her truest best friend.

She knew it didn't really make sense to attribute Mark's death with Erin's rejection. She realized that Mark's death was completely coincidental. But it was too much for her to handle and even though she knew she felt one way, she opted to force herself to feel the "right" way. Mark wasn't there that day and the day's after when she needed to be picked up and brushed off. She'd lost the one person who promised to be there for her no matter what. The one person who loved her for her no matter what. No matter how she felt, and no matter who she truly was. She had weighed the pros and cons of giving the letter to Erin, and ultimately decided that she needed to take a chance and do something crazy. Even if the worst came back to her, she figured she'd at least have Mark by her side. Telling her it would all be okay.

The hurt and pain got worse. Erin had passed Paige's letter around to other kids in school and Paige became the center of attention. She was known as the girl who lost her brother and liked girls. Her grades began to drop and she became slightly less interested in competing in swim. Swim had never been completely cut out of her life, but she had stopped racing for the remainder of her eighth grade year. She kept completely to herself, showing up to school just to be there. Paige's parents dealt with the loss of Mark in their own way eventually engrossing themselves completely in their work. They figured Paige was just dealing with the loss in her own way, and she'd bounce back to her normal self.

Five months after Mark's accident, summer rolled around and Paige felt as numb as ever. On a day where she had been using a particularly sharp knife to carefully peel away an orange peel, Paige accidentally sliced open her finger. It took her by surprise and she initially hadn't realized she had cut herself until she recalled feeling the tug of her skin and watched as the bright red substance leached out of the open wound on the tip of her finger. Realizing it was continuing to bleed an absurd amount of blood for such a small cut she reached for a paper towel and applied pressure to finger. Her finger was now throbbing and stung at the contact of the paper towel. Oddly enough, she had found herself feeling a slight rush of excitement in the small amount of pain she was feeling in her finger. It'd been so long since she had felt anything.

The accidental cut that summer seemed to have triggered something inside her and she started to make it into a more common occurrence. She got a hold of a small razorblade from a stash her dad had in his toolbox. Meticulously, she would drag the razor across her skin cutting herself on her side, just above her hip. She figured it'd be the easiest place to cover up on her body. Even with a swimsuit. The razor became a tool allowing her to feel again. It reminded herself she was still, in fact, alive. Even when on the inside, she didn't feel like it. And eventually it turned into something she needed to do on a regular basis. She figured that it was better to feel pain than to not feel anything at all.

Time went on and Paige found herself towards the middle of her freshman year of high school. She found herself swimming competitively again with a stronger drive than she had before. She guessed that it was fueled from the anger she housed deep inside her. Anger she still had from losing Mark and anger from the feelings she still felt that she was still unable to shake. The bullying never really stopped. Even though she had had her go at dating a few guys from school, it didn't stop the occasional harassment that had stemmed from that letter that had followed her from middle school. She thought that if she was seen with a boy, it would prove to her that maybe she really wasn't gay and to prove to others that saw her that she wasn't. None of her relationships lasted long. Especially when they guys became too touchy-feely. But she figured that it didn't really mean anything and she told herself she just hadn't found the right guy yet.

She'd occasionally see Erin in the halls of the high school and every time they accidentally made eye contact, it brought back all of the memories Paige tried so hard to repress. Every so often, she'd get an anonymous note in her locker; sometimes her swim locker and it'd mention something about her being a dyke and that she wasn't fooling anyone. She had a feeling that the notes were from Erin, still poking fun at her. She never understood how someone who was once her friend, could still be so cruel.

Paige had sort of just drifted through the year. She maintained a 4.0 grade point average so as not to tip off her parents that something might be wrong. They were hardly ever home, so as long as she kept her times down and her grades up, they never would have suspected anything. She looked back on the year having almost no recollection of what exactly had happened during that school year. Other than having a very successful swim season the only thing that stood out to her was when she had tried, unsuccessfully, to take her life. Swimming all of a sudden wasn't enough for her. She realized it would probably never make her feel whole again and it would never bring Mark back.

One night after she had had a particularly bad day at school and when she was feeling especially alone, her thoughts led her to wish she had been in the car with Mark that day. She wished that she could have gone with him and be with him, wherever he was. She'd raided her parent's medicine cabinet that night. She had found three different kinds of sleeping pills prescribed to her mom and figured she'd take her chances taking all three. She hoped that it would be as easy as drifting off to sleep.

Other than remembering taking all the pills and allowing herself to drift off to sleep, the next thing she recalled from that day was waking up in the hospital getting her stomach pumped. It wasn't until later that her mom told her she'd come home to find Paige asleep, but upon further inspection when she was covering Paige up with a blanket, it looked like she was hardly breathing. She had immediately called 9-1-1 and they had arrived just in the nick of time. Had she been found any later, she wouldn't be alive to this day.

Paige's parents never really knew the exact reason why she tried to overdose on the pills. They just assumed it was because she was still grieving over Mark's death. The real reason was because she was tired of the bullying from school and the feelings she had desperately tried to escape, without luck, since that letter incident. Really, she knew deep down inside that Mark would never have wanted her to escape her problems the way she had tried. He would have wanted to see her take them head on and put up a fight about it. Be proud of who she was and stand up for herself. But she was too much of a coward, especially without him as her support system.

Her parents had found out about her cutting problem the same night she was admitted to the hospital. The doctors and nurses had stripped off her shirt in the process of hooking her up to all the monitoring equipment and it was apparent the old scars and the newer cuts had been put there on purpose. Paige started to see a therapist the day she was release from the hospital and her parents took her out of school for the remainder of the year and hired a private tutor so she could finish her classes up at home.

She could see confusion and disappointment in her parent's eyes when she finally made it home and was sat down on the living room couch. It was some sort of an intervention she'd guessed. Her dad quickly resorted to raising his voice and her mom was brought to tears saying she had worried that she'd lost her only other child. That she was so sure she had already lost Paige when she dialed 9-1-1. She just sat there on the couch with a blank stare on her face. Her dad had a short fuse, much like she did and her mom was overly emotional sometimes. She figured it was best to both let them vent in their own way because nothing she said to them would make it better. She knew that what she had tried to do was dumb, and almost selfish.

Paige lifted her head off her knees. She'd been sitting against the door for what seemed like forever, crying all her jumbled up confused feelings out, when really, as she checked the time it had only been about a good twenty minute cry session. She brought her hands up to her face and wiped away the stray tears that lingered on her cheeks and wiped her nose. She was a mess.

Just then her phone had buzzed inside her sweatpants' pocket. Pulling it out and unlocking the screen she looked down at her phone.

**Hey! I just made it home safe and sound. Btw. I would so ****_not_**** ditch YOU for my mom. : ) –E**

A small smile found itself spreading across Paige's face.

_Maybe it will be okay. Maybe I really didn't freak her out._

Today marked almost a year for Paige since she had both last taken a razor to herself and tried to take her life. It had been almost two years since Mark had died.

Seeing a therapist had helped Paige significantly. She was able to openly talk about all of her pent up frustrations, worries, and feelings again. Mark being absent from her life had caused Paige to shut herself in. When her parents had noticed she seemed to have been more herself and had taken an interest in swimming again, her dad hired a trainer to help get her back in shape. She fought them against going back to Jefferson for school and she told them it was just because she worried kids from school knew about her incident. Relenting, they put in a transfer to Rosewood when she finally told them she was ready to go back to public school. The classes she took over the summer and the classes she finished up during the fall term put her ahead in school. She was now at a junior level with most of her classes and some at a senior level.

Paige texted Emily back.

**If you say so ;) -P**

Paige stood up from her position by the door and walked herself upstairs to her room. She slipped out of her tear saturated tank top and sweatpants and threw on a t-shirt and running shorts. She could feel that she'd be getting a good night's sleep tonight. She had exhausted herself crying so hard and it had been exactly what she needed. She brushed her teeth and crawled under the comforter of her queen sized bed.

As she settled herself in bed she flipped over to her side left side and the last thoughts to enter her head were,

_Maybe I shouldn't be afraid of just being myself. Mark would have hated to see me like this. Hiding who I really was. Putting on a front on for everyone around me. After all, Emily isn't anything like Erin. And maybe, just maybe there's a chance she could like me back. _

Paige still didn't really know what she was going to do about her resurfacing feelings. Feelings that were now finding themselves directed specifically towards Emily. It'd been so long since she had allowed herself to feel this way. But there was something about Emily's presence that was causing Paige's carefully constructed wall to come slowly undone, brick by brick. But she figured, as she drifted off to sleep, that she'd let that be a problem for her to worry about when she woke up.


	9. Chapter 9

_**I very much apologize for falling off the radar for so long. Things have been a bit chaotic in my personal life. I found myself needing to escape a bit so I found refuge in my FanFic once again. And thank goodness for that...**_

_**How exciting that the Halloween episode premieres tomorrow night?! I can't wait for more onscreen Paily time! **_

_**This chapter didn't wrap up where I initially planned it to, but that's usually the case.. so no fear, more to come! I promise. **_

_**ALSO, I switched up the way I was writing from the girl's POVs. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me what you think. It's more meshed than separated.. I had a reader ask if I could include both girl's POVs more often, so this was my best attempt. If I failed miserably I'm sorry! But do give me feedback. I felt rusty writing this chapter. (Which obviously means I need to keep writing more often!) **_

_**A special thanks to my new followers and a super big thank you to the kind reviews I still manage to receive. You all are the best!**_

_**Also a big thanks for the followers/readers who found this through my tumblr. You're constant support whenever I post about this on there is amazing. You keep me motivated. :)**_

_**Enjoy this chapter! XX**_

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Sunday flew by faster than expected. Paige found herself seated in her first class realizing that her winter break had flashed before her eyes. It was odd to be back in a public school again since everything had happened, and she welcomed the experience with a little bit of apprehension.

Paige unzipped her backpack and pulled out her notebook, her literature book, and a pen to write with. She had arrived early enough to have first choice of where to sit. Naturally, she chose the table at the rear of the classroom that sat right by the window. She liked looking out the window. A view out the window meant she felt less like she was trapped, or imprisoned, in this brick building known as a school.

Other kids slowly started to file into the classroom just after the five minute warning bell rang. She turned her attention to her now open notebook and began to doodle.

"Don't stress so much."

"You don't even realize, I have so much on my plate right now and Mr. Powell is out to get me. I swear. He gave me a B minus on my research paper. Do you know how long I spent on that experiment and data collection? Too long for a B minus, that's how long. I didn't even have a single grammatical error. I'm still in the running for valedictorian and if he screws this up for me, he won't even know what hit him. There is no way in hell I'm letting Eugene Warner take this from me. Maybe they're in on it together. It must to be a conspiracy. Eugene has probably worked out some deal with Powell. I know it."

"Spencer, chill out, just breathe. Do you realize how ridiculous you sound right now? A B minus isn't a bad score on a paper. I mean maybe he didn't think your experiment was very original, or maybe it lacked enough data collection to back up your theory. If you are that cons—"

Emily stopped mid-sentence. Someone sitting in the back of the classroom she had just entered had caught her eye.

"Emily?" Spencer asked.

"Heeelllloooo? Earth to Emily. If you're going to side with my scumbag of a teacher then you need at least have a valid argument in an attempt prove your point. Why does your face have that same look of confusion it normally does when you are working on a multi-step math equation?"

"Huh? What? Wait, Spence, are we in the right classroom right now?"

"Yeah, of course we are. This has been our first period class since school started. Did you hit your head over break or something? And what's up with that goofy smile on your face?"

"Nothing. I just thought of something funny."

Spencer followed her gaze curiously.

"Got a thing for the new girl in the corner over there? She's cute, I guess."

"She's just from the swim team. We met a few days ago. But she's a sophomore, or at least I thought she was."

"Interesting." Spencer replied with narrowed eyes.

Emily was trying to recall the conversation that had taken place between her and this other girl. She swore that Paige had mentioned she was only a sophomore.

"What?" Emily asked.

"You're totally crushing on her. I can see it written all over your face. And if it's that clear for _me_ to tell, then you better believe it's as if you are shouting it to the mountain tops for anyone else looking at your face and following your gaze right now."

"Oh please. She's nice. But we've only known each other a couple days."

"Well those two days seem to have been enough to grasp your full undivided attention, because I can see you are completely awe struck with her right now and bored with me."

"I am not." Emily argued.

_God, she's so right._

"Whatever, I'm taking a seat up front. Do what you want, but I fo—"

"Focus better at the front of the classroom, I know Spence. Talk to you after class?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Emily walked towards the back of the classroom to where the auburn haired girl sat.

"Is this seat taken?" She asked with a smile to the girl who was too focused on the tree she was drawing to realize someone was standing directly in front of her.

Paige froze. Her heart started to race and her breath caught in her throat.

_That voice._

She didn't need to look up. She knew exactly who belonged to that voice. That voice was one of a kind and she'd never tire of hearing it.

_Emily._

She looked up with a huge smile plastered across her face.

"For a steep price, you can have it."

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?" Emily asked curiously.

"I haven't quite decided yet."

"Well, in the mean time, while you are still contemplating your options, can I occupy the seat?"

"I suppose, but only if you agree to my terms later." Paige answered back.

_As if I'd ever tell her no. _

Emily smiled.

"I think I can handle whatever those terms will be, so call me crazy, but I'll take my chances. And when you decide the terms, don't go easy on me either."

Paige returned an amused smile and kept her eyes on Emily.

Emily reached for the chair that sat next to Paige. Placing her messenger bag on the ground she pulled the chair back and then took her seat next to the girl.

"So, I'm a little confused. " Emily stated.

"About?"

"About the fact that you're sitting in a senior level literature class right now as a sophomore."

"Oh, yeah." Paige blushed. She started to tap the end of her pen on her notebook nervously.

"Are you embarrassed?"

"No. Ha. I'm not embarrassed. I uh.—Okay yeah. I kinda am." Paige stated while keeping her gaze down at her notebook.

"Aww, don't be embarrassed. You're obviously super smart. Why else would you be in this class?" Emily more-so stated than asked while lightly grabbing Paige in the side.

This caused Paige to jump slightly out of her seat and hit the tops of her legs on the table.

"Ah, sttaahhpp. You know I'm ticklish." Paige practically yelped out while gently removing Emily's hand from her side.

"Why do you think I did it?" Emily asked with a mischievous smile spread across her face.

Emily fought the urge to keep hold of Paige's hand.

"Not cool. You can't use my weakness against me like that." Paige answered.

"I beg to differ. It gives me a leg up on ya. I have to compete somehow."

Paige laughed and shook her head at Emily's comment.

"Well I'm in this class as a sophomore because this was one of the classes I managed to get ahead in when I was home-schooled. I didn't have much else to focus on. I guess school work was a good distraction. But I don't like unnecessary attention for it."

"So what other classes are on your schedule?" Emily asked.

"Oh umm here, take a look." Paige responded by handing over her class schedule to Emily.

In the process of Emily grabbing the paper out of Paige's hand, her fingers grazed Paige's.

Every time they touched it felt electric and Emily couldn't help but think maybe she'd make a habit of _accidently_ touching Paige more often.

Paige watched as Emily studied the folded up piece of paper. She couldn't help but admire the look of concentration Emily had as she read through her schedule. It was adorable.

"We have chemistry." Emily stated matter-of-factly.

_What'd she just say?_

"Huh, what?" Paige asked.

Emily kept her focus on Paige's class schedule.

"You heard me." Emily responded now looking up and smiling widely at Paige.

Paige cocked her head to the side and held Emily's gaze with a look of puzzlement.

_Did she just admit we have chemistry, like between the two of us? _

"What?" Emily questioned with one of the cutest smiles Paige had ever witnessed.

"No—nothing. I uh, never mind."

"Well, I'm not lying and you can't deny it."

"Deny? That we have…chemistry?" Paige asked carefully while swallowing hard and feeling her body temperature steadily increase.

_Is it hot in here?_

Paige started to unzip the hoodie she was wearing.

"Yeah, take a look fourth period AP Chemistry with Mrs. Burns. I've got that class at the same time you do, therefore we have it together." Emily responded.

Paige stopped unzipping her sweatshirt about halfway at the realization that she'd just had. Her face had a look of complete surprise and total embarrassment.

_Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She was looking at your class schedule of course she didn't actually mean we have chemistry, we just have chemistry together. God, I'm so dumb._

"What? Did I say something to upset you?"

"Oh, ppffff, no. You could never. I uh—I just uh. Never mind. Fourth period chemistry you said? Awesome." Paige said as she turned her head to look out the window.

_What I would do to be able to just run away right now. I'm so dumb. Why would I ever have thought she meant the other type of chemistry? _

Paige was mentally slamming her head against her desk top.

"Paige?"

"Uh, yeah?" Paige responded while slowly turning her head back to Emily.

"We've got lunch at the same time and we also have athletic conditioning together too. Lucky me, I get to see you throughout my entire school day."

"Well, look at that. We do. You're bound to get sick of me by the time we have swim practice together."

"That's nonsense. I don't think I could ever get sick of you."

"We'll see about that." Paige responded while smiling sweetly at Emily.

_I really hope she doesn't get sick of me._

The final bell rang and echoed throughout the halls. It was then that both girls realized all the seats around them were now full of other bodies and their literature teacher was starting to call roll.

Emily reached down to pull her textbook and notebook out of her bag. It was going to be a long class, and not because of the class itself, but because of the girl who was sitting next to her. She was unquestionably going to be a huge distraction the entire 50 minute class period. And not only would she be a distraction in this class but she would be a distraction in the next two they had together later on in the day.

She couldn't complain though, Paige was giving her a reason to actually pretend she was paying attention in class. Maybe she'd actually learn something in the last half of her senior year of high school. Senioritis had already set in and if it wasn't for swim team, her motivation to do well in school would have been completely shot by now.

"You know, I actually enjoyed reading and writing, but I'm afraid this class will kill any chance of that ever being a hobby of mine in the near future and quite possibly forever." Paige said as she followed Emily out of the classroom.

"Tell me about it. School has a way of making you despise the both of them. It's a shame it isn't more fun. I like to read and write when I'm not forced to. This class has already scarred me. You're in for some fun." Emily replied.

"Oh _joy_."

Paige was now to the side of Emily and walking in step with her down the crowded hallway.

"Well I happen to like both, especially in an academic setting. I think it's actually strengthened my love for literature as a whole. It's fun dissecting the reading materials and then writing up your own assessments." Stated a voice, unfamiliar to Paige, from behind.

Paige turned around in the direction of the stranger's voice and made eye contact with a dark brown haired girl whose face was so serious it looked like it was set in stone. She eyed Paige up and down. Her intimidating presence alone made Paige feel like the size of an ant and she was a shoe about to stomp down on her.

"Spencer, Paige. Paige, this is Spencer." Emily breathed out as she was now turned around situating herself next to Paige and facing the mystery girl as well.

"Hey." Was all Paige could muster from her vocal chords.

Spencer held Paige's eye contact for longer than what Paige was comfortable with, but soon the other girl's facial expression softened the slightest bit and she replied with a "Hi. Spencer Hastings, nice to meet you." While holding her hand out for Paige to shake it.

Paige somewhat reluctantly reached out to meet Spencer's hand, shook it, and smiled a friendly smile.

"Erm, Paige McCullers. Nice to meet you too."

"Spencer pretty much lives for school. She's in the running for valedictorian of our graduating class. She's probably the one exception when it comes to loving school papers and reading while also memorizing textbooks from cover to cover. It's not right. She needs help if you ask me." Emily interjected.

Paige let a small laugh escape her mouth.

Spencer looked at Paige with narrow eyes and a straight face. Paige immediately switched to her serious face while also avoiding her petrifying gaze.

_Oops._

"Whatever Emily. You all give me a hard time about it, but who would you come to when you need help with your assignments if I wasn't so obsessed with school?"

"Okay, okay that's true. You are the closest it gets to a real-life version of Google for me. So please, don't stop obsessing over school. I don't know how I would have made it this far without you."

"Exactly. Now excuse me, I need to interrogate Mr. Powell about this B minus business. He'll have wished he'd given me the A that I deserved by the time I'm done with him."

With that, Spencer spun around on her heels and walked with a purpose through the masses of people still crowding the hallway.

Surprisingly enough to Paige, it was as if the sea of people parted just for Spencer on her quest to harass one of her teachers, from what Paige had gathered.

"Wow." Paige managed to voice as she exhaled. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath until Spencer had left.

Emily laughed and nudged Paige's shoulder.

"Oh come on, she's not that bad."

"She's…"

"Intimidating?"

Emily had finished Paige's thought with the exact word she was about to use to describe Spencer.

"Yeah, and she makes me feel…"

"Like you're being judged and that you have to tell her all your life accomplishments and explain your goals in life and just how you are going to accomplish those just so she might, even just the slightest bit, be impressed?"

"Ha, Wow. Well I was going to say unworthy of just the mere presence of her. But you summed that whole experience up pretty well."

"Here walk with me to my locker it's just around the corner, unless your other class is too far away." Emily stated.

Paige took a look at her watch.

"I've got time, I'll walk with you."

Both girls started to walk in the initial direction they had been headed before Spencer graced them with her presence.

"She's very driven and no one stands in the way of what she wants. God help them if they do. I promise she isn't all that bad. You just have to give her a chance. I've known her a long time. She's one of my best friends. She's definitely intimidating at first, but you really have nothing to be afraid of. And besides, I'd come to your rescue before she's able to eat you alive."

Paige stopped before she allowed herself to take one more step and looked directly at Emily.

"Wow, seriously? That's really reassuring, thanks. Because if I wasn't already scared enough of her before, I am now. So, note to self, avoid Spencer at all costs."

"I'm kidding. Relax." Emily replied while lightly placing her hand at the small of Paige's back while pushing her forward to encourage her to keep walking.

Paige started to walk and Emily moved back to her side.

They took a turn just around the corner and Emily stopped at a navy blue painted locker that was numbered 2244. Paige moved to her left as the locker would open to Emily's right. She didn't want anything blocking the view she'd been blessed with all morning.

Emily rotated the dial on her locker aligning the proper combination allowing for it to open on her first try. Usually it took her a couple tries at best to get it right. She always made a mistake.

_Funny. Of all the times, especially with Paige distracting me, this time it didn't take me twenty tries to get my locker open._

Emily eased her locker open exposing its contents to Paige.

Paige studied the way that Emily had neatly lined her textbooks side-by-side by size.

_Cute._

On one of the hooks in the back of her locker an extra pair of swim goggles hung.

_An extra pair is always good to have as a backup. _

Four pictures were taped to the inside of her locker door. One was a picture of Emily and two adults, a man and a woman. Paige guessed they were Emily's parents. Emily looked just like the both of them. Her Dad was wearing a military dress uniform. Paige was sure it was Army. Multiple ribbons and medals decorated his chest. It was obvious he had served quite a bit of time in the military.

The second picture was one with Emily and three other girls. Paige immediately recognized Spencer standing off to the left side of Emily. She didn't recognize the other two; one was a cute, petite, dark brown haired girl, and the other a blonde, who had very prominent, very adorable dimples on her cheeks, as well as gorgeous blue eyes. They were both standing on the other side of Emily. All of their arms were wrapped around the backs of each other almost as if they were using each other as supports. The picture had captured them all in a genuine moment of laughter and Paige couldn't help but crack a small smile herself after studying the picture.

The third picture was of Emily when she was much younger, probably around 8 or 9 years old. She was standing on a diving block in the ready position, probably about to start her race. She had a look of determination. It reminded Paige of when she, herself, first started to swim. She'd always had a competitive drive and focus from the time she began to race, partially because she was always trying to compete with Mark.

And last but not least, the fourth picture. It was of tall handsome dark haired boy who looked to be about the same age as Emily. Emily was hugging him from behind; her arms were wrapped around him and connected tightly at the front. She was peering up at him from his left side. In doing so, he had no choice but to stand there with his arms trapped at his sides while looking down at her and smiling. It reminded Paige of a staged photograph a cute couple might take.

Paige felt her heart sink with the realization.

_I guess he must be her boyfriend. Figures Paige, of course she's straight. You big idiot._

Emily was still rummaging through the contents of her locker

_Why can't I find my homework assignment?_

She managed to drop a binder in the process of digging for what she was searching for.

_Shit. Great going Emily._

The crash of the binder on the linoleum floor snapped Paige out of her deep thoughts.

Paige knelt down quickly to help pick it up. Emily had followed just shortly after. Some papers had escaped the binder on impact. As Paige reached for one, Emily's hand met hers on accident in the process of grabbing for the same paper. Paige froze. Keeping her gaze on Emily's hand for a few seconds and then looking up only to be caught off guard because Emily's gaze was focused directly with her own eyes.

_Those beautiful eyes. Why do they make me feel so exposed? This beautiful girl. Why did I have to fall for you? I don't even have a chance._

Paige quickly released the paper causing herself to break contact with Emily.

Emily's face went from one full of sweetness to one of disappointment.

_Crap. Did I make her uncomfortable?_

"I uh, I should go. I think I might be late to my next class." Paige said while avoiding Emily's eyes.

"Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. I was looking for my assignment for my next class. Sorry it took me so long." Emily replied.

"No it's fine. I umm, I'll catch you later?" Paige asked while trying her best to force a sincere smile on her face.

"Yeah. Of course."

"Good luck finding your assignment." Paige said as she stood up, re-adjusted her backpack on her shoulder, and turned to walk away from Emily.

Paige felt bad abandoning Emily as she still knelt at the foot of her locker with a mess of papers still surrounding her. But it was for the best Paige convinced herself. She just hoped that Emily couldn't tell anything was wrong.

Emily watched as Paige disappeared around the corner.

_Did I do something?_

Releasing a breath of air from her lungs and running her hand through her hair to push it out of her face she let her eyes fall to the paper that she was still holding in her hand. The paper that Paige grabbed for first. The paper they held together for a few short seconds.

It her was her history assignment.

"Oh for fucks sake." Escaped Emily's lips in a whispered snarl.

The tardy bell rang. Emily was going to be late to her next class. But that was the last thing on her mind. She was still trying to figure out if she had done or said something that caused Paige to run off so suddenly.

_That figures._

Emily stood up after she had gathered all her papers off the floor and crammed them back into her binder. Placing her binder back into her locker, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder, and keeping hold of her history assignment, she slammed her locker shut and headed in the direction of her next class. If she thought her first period class felt like forever, the next two classes would feel like eternity until she could see Paige again.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Reposted this chapter because I found that there was a missing piece of Hanna's dialogue during lunch... ooopsies.**_

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_**So seriously, every time I set out to complete a new chapter, it never goes as planned. This again is stopping short from where I wanted it to, but I figure any update is better than no update at all. ;) If I continued until I reached the point I wanted to it'd probably be triple the size this chapter is. I can't stop myself from adding all these details. Goodness me.**_

_**We are still in the climbing phase of this story so hang in there because I promise once it reaches the top, it'll be worth the wait. I have big plans for these two. :D I just can't seem to spit out the story as fast as I thought I would have by now.**_

_**I just wanted to say a quick hello to my new followers since the last post I made. It makes me smile whenever I get a notification that someone was interested enough in this story to receive updates. So thanks for that and thanks for being awesome.**_

_**Speaking of smiling, Thank you for the continued words of support for this story. I love to read the feedback from you all. You sure know how to make a girl feel special. ^_^**_

_**Enjoy this next installment. **_

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Emily had arrived early to chemistry in hopes of being able to say something to Paige and gauge if everything really was okay between them and that she hadn't done or said anything to upset her. She might have misunderstood the sudden departure, she was so flustered with the numerous papers scattered about the floor and her missing assignment. Then she got so caught up when they touched hands that her mind wasn't even in the right place. It was all kind of fuzzy.

Person after person filed into the classroom, but still no sign of Paige.

_Where could she be? I was sure she had this class with me. _

Emily looked down at her wrist watch. The bell was about to ring at any moment.

Paige sauntered into the classroom seconds just before the tardy bell rang. She took the first empty seat her eyes landed on, which happened to be located at the very front of the classroom. She didn't bother looking for Emily. In all honesty, she purposely tried to avoid showing up too early knowing that Emily shared the class with her.

Paige wanted to be okay with a friendship with Emily, but at this point it was obvious to Paige that right now, she'd never be able to block out the inappropriate thoughts and urges. She needed some time to figure out what to do. She just hoped that Emily would give her some space. The most frustrating thing was that Emily hadn't even done anything, Paige was fully aware that _she_ was the one overanalyzing things and jumping way too far ahead of herself. But that's just how she was.

The moment Emily looked up after checking the time, Paige walked right into the classroom. Emily was sitting towards the back and Paige seemed to have taken the nearest seat she found. She looked relaxed, almost as if she had planned walking in just before the bell rang.

Class was going to feel like forever especially when all she could see of Paige was the back of her head. She'd just have to admire her beautiful reddish-brown hair for now. She'd give anything to be able to run her hands through that hair at this exact moment. Grab a handful of it and gently pull Paige just close enough to demand a kiss. She'd tease her first though and hover just slightly away from Paige's _very_ kissable looking lips. When she closed the last remaining space between their lips she'd-

"What the hell has you so happy? You hate this class and the smile on your face could go on for miles."

Emily snapped out of her daydream.

"Huh, what? I uh, I wasn't smiling."

"No? Really? You weren't? Were you trying to bare your teeth in a sad attempt to intimidate someone? Because that whole thing…"

Spencer pointed her finger towards Emily's face while twirling it slowly in a circle.

"…needs a lot of work. That was about as cute as a box full of month old puppies."

"Oh shut up." Emily replied back while throwing her pen across the table at Spencer. The two had been lab partners since the start of the school year. Spencer dodged it and it rolled towards the front of the classroom.

_Of course she'd catch me again._

"Watch it. Didn't you learn not to throw writing utensils at people back in kindergarten? Or were you too love struck with a cute red head back in the day too? You could have impaled my eye. I'd like to keep my perfect vision for the rest of my life. Thanks."

"You _would_ try to keep a perfect medical record. Spencer you are unreal sometimes and that pen was nowhere near your face, such a shame for that matter too."

Emily knew how to dish sarcasm on a platter back at Spencer when she needed to. They'd known each other too long for her to not know how to respond to some of the things that came out of her mouth and sometimes she needed a taste of her own medicine.

"Ouch, Em. That almost sounded like you thought about aiming for my face, or maybe you actually tried, good thing you're a swimmer. Your aim is shit."

"You're asking for it Spence. I wasn't smiling and the pen went exactly where I wanted it to."

Emily stood up from her table and started walking up the aisle way towards her pen that was still on the floor. Her pen happened to end up right next to where Paige was sitting.

_Perfect aim._

Emily smiled to herself.

Their chemistry teacher hadn't started the class yet. People were still lost in quiet conversation and she figured this would be her chance to say something without making it too obvious that she was purposely trying to talk to Paige.

Paige was lost in her own thoughts when suddenly she noticed a pen sliding across the tile just slightly past her desk. She wasn't surprised to see it, but she was surprised to see who followed after the pen had come to a hault.

_Emily._

She watched as Emily walked slightly past her desk and bent down to pick the pen up. She gracefully turned around on her toes and was now facing Paige smiling her sweet smile.

It was obvious to Emily that Paige had been watching her when she retrieved her pen. Emily couldn't help but feel happy that her plan was working so far. Being noticed was the first step.

Paige immediately started to blush as soon as she had been caught staring at Emily.

_Crap._

She shouldn't even have been bothered about seeing that picture in Emily's locker, but it was almost like a hard hit to her chest when she connected the dots. Almost like self-inflicted pain. She let her imagination get the best of her too soon. The fact that she had allowed herself to let her thoughts wander about the possibility of Emily being interested in her frustrated her more than anything. She'd tear herself apart if she didn't figure out how to go about their relationship in the right mindset. It would be dumb to separate herself from Emily completely because Paige could see a good friend in Emily regardless of how she was feeling. She just needed some time to be okay with that. The fact that the idea was gone left her feeling slightly empty and hopeless. And she hated herself for feeling this way about it.

"My pen missed Spencer's face. But I guess I can't complain too much, even though she deserved to be hit."

Paige looked at Emily with a polite smile and curious gaze.

"Never mind." Emily said while feeling awkward all of a sudden.

She realized that Paige probably didn't know Spencer well enough understand what she meant.

"So how were your other classes?" Emily asked.

"Umm, they were super thrilling. Advanced World History and Pre-Calculus like seriously, I'm _trying_ to contain my excitement right now. Don't get me started I won't be able to shut up."

Emily laughed softly.

_She's joking with me, maybe we are fine?_

"Well I don't know about you, but pre-calc can kiss my ass. I hate it and it hates me."

"Damn, sounds like an unhealthy relationship you should get out of."

"Oh I wish it was that simple. I struggle so hard to maintain a decent grade in that class. I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head and I haven't ripped it all out by now. Thank gosh for Spencer, she's my go-to for tutoring help."

"I hope she's still willing after you attempted to throw a writing utensil at her face."

"Oh shoot. See what I mean when I said I do things compulsively sometimes? I didn't think about that. Damn. I really need to think about the consequences of my actions sometimes."

"Well, what fun would that be? Don't your impulsive actions leave you pleasantly surprised sometimes and the complete opposite of regretful?" Paige asked.

Emily's eye's narrowed, contemplating what it would mean if she thought more about things before she did them. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing. She hadn't overstepped people's boundaries too many times even though she worried numerous times that she had made Paige uncomfortable. Sometimes doing things on impulse really wasn't a bad thing.

But she wasn't really sure where Paige was going with her question, and was tempted to ask more about it because she was curious as to what Paige would say, but then Mrs. Burns asked the class to quiet down and Emily realized she needed to return to her seat.

"I'll catch you after?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, sure." Paige replied.

Not really sure if she meant it, and hoping that Emily wouldn't be fast enough.

Class finished up quicker than Paige had expected. She thought her hand might fall off after all the notes she had written during the class period, but she knew that there was no escaping them. She'd need them later to work on her homework. She quickly packed up her belongings and came to a stand from her table gripping her still unzipped backpack in both of her hands. Zipping it up she began to walk towards the door. She started to walk with a purpose in an attempt to avoid the mass chaos that was about to take place in the halls after everyone emptied their respective classrooms.

She hated being bumped into as if she was invisible. The medley of slamming locker doors was one of her least favorite sounds. Couples that held hands as they walked side-by-side down the hall always seemed to be begging her to play red-rover with them, even though with _every_ fiber in her being she always ignored the urge. There was _always_ at least one person walking down the wrong side of the hallway, tricking her into dancing an awkward box-step of sorts, when she found herself trying to predict their movement just as they attempted to predict hers. It never failed that she'd move to the same side as the person blocking her pathway and when she stepped back they would step forward. She always walked away feeling mixed emotions of embarrassment and annoyance. She always made a note to just stop in place the next time that it happened, but the same choreography always seemed to find its way back to her whenever that same situation took place again.

Paige was looking for a place to be alone, she was feeling overwhelmed. It was only the first day she'd been back in a public school environment in a while and she was feeling slightly suffocated.

Paige had still been seated just before Emily turned her attention to gathering up her own belongings and sliding them into her beg. But as soon as she looked back up to where Paige was seated just moments before, she was nowhere to be seen.

Puzzled by how quickly Paige managed escaped the classroom without her realizing it, Emily quickly threw her bag over her shoulder and decided she would make an attempt to catch up with her in the hallway. Stepping just outside of the classroom doorway she peered to the left and then the right. There was no sign of Paige down either side of the hallway.

_Well, I guess that was wishful thinking. _

Emily decided she'd head for the cafeteria and meet with her friends like she always did.

Paige had packed her lunch so she was able to avoid the cafeteria altogether. She was weighing her options of where the best place to eat lunch would be. Ultimately she decided on what she believed would be the one place no one else would be during the lunch hour. The one place she could just sit and think. Meditate. Enjoy peace and quiet.

She was headed in the direction to the pool.

She knew she couldn't swim laps at the moment, but if she wasn't able to swim, then next best thing was to be able to sit next to the pool and think about swimming. So that's what she did. She grabbed a spare towel from her swim locker. Folding it up underneath of her, and she took a seat on it and sat by the edge of the pool. The strong smell of chlorine and the heavy feeling of the humid air made her feel like she was right where she belonged. It was her sanctuary. It was the one place where she could forget about everything going on and feel like she had control over at least one thing in her life. Swimming.

These days, she swam for herself and at the end of every race the only person she felt like she had to answer to was herself. Any less than her best wasn't good enough. It wasn't about winning for her. She didn't swim to win. She swam because she loved it and it felt like a part of her being. But if she didn't push herself a little each time, even when she felt like she couldn't be pushed any further, then she was letting herself down.

She was good. She knew that. But she stayed humble about it. And if she happened to win, then that was just a bonus. She won a lot. She knew that too. But in all honesty, she figured each win was the universe's way of keeping her father off her back about the one thing she loved that she didn't want him ruining for her.

Each win meant she didn't have to hear a long drawn out lecture from him. The only time he seemed to show any interest in her anymore was when she was doing something wrong or not living up to his standards. She couldn't remember the last time her dad had said he was proud of her. Sometimes she wondered if continuing to swim after Mark had passed away brought up too many emotional memories for her parents. They hardly ever came to her meets anymore. If it wasn't for Mark, she didn't know if she ever would have discovered her passion for swimming. So, not only did she swim for herself, but these days she swam for him too.

She finished her food as quickly as possible, knowing that she might be hassled by someone if they caught her with food near the pool. As soon as she finished the last bite of her apple, she stuffed her trash into her brown paper bag, stood up and tossed her trash into the nearest wastebasket. She still had about 20 minutes to kill, so she returned to her towel and started to slip her shoes and socks off while carefully rolling her pant legs up.

"Em what has you so quiet today? I don't think I've heard you say a single word this entire lunch time."

Emily looked up from her lunch tray. She had been pushing around the peas leftover in the circular cutout spot of her tray. She hadn't managed to spot Paige from the time she had entered the cafeteria. Something told her Paige was eating elsewhere and she wished that she could have been wherever it was that Paige was. She honestly hated just how much Paige already consumed her thoughts. It was hard to tell sometimes if Paige really did want her company or if she was being polite. After hearing her comment from earlier, Emily couldn't tell if she was unknowingly smothering Paige. Or making Paige feel obligated to talk to her. She was one of the captains on the swim team. Maybe Paige was intimidated.

"HHmmm? Oh sorry Aria, I just have something on my mind." Emily answered.

"I think she meant to say _someone_. She has_ someone_ on her mind." Spencer chimed in.

Emily shot Spencer a glare.

"Ohhh Em has a new lady friend? Do tell us the dets, no holding back."

"Okay, Hanna, I've told you this before, shortening words of the English language should never have become a _thing_ and it certainly will not be tolerated when speaking to or around me. Furthermore, Em has a newfound obsession with a new girl who happens to be a sophomore as well as have a spot on the varsity swim team. Emily doesn't want to admit it, but it's written all over her face whenever she is thinking about her. And by the way Emily," Spencer now turned her gaze upon Emily.

"..don't think I didn't notice when that pen ended up by Paige's feet in chemistry. Turns out your aim isn't total shit, I just misjudged who you were throwing that pen at." Spencer smirked and shot a narrow eyed look back at Emily.

At that moment all of the girls were staring at Emily, waiting for her to respond to Spencer's accusations.

"I don't know what you're talking about. And as much as it pains me to break this news to you Spence, but realizing this is what friends are for, there is something you should know,… you can't _always_ be right _all_ of the time." Emily shot back.

"Oooh buuurrn. Need some Neosporin for that Spence? She got you good. That was like a first degree." Hanna blurted out excitedly.

"Uh, Hanna, hate to burst your bubble hun, but Neosporin won't do anything for a first degree burn, not to mention it's actually recommended to _not_ put ointment on any type of burn for that matter." Aria stated.

"Ookaaaaay _Dr. Phil_." Hanna emphasized with a hint of sarcasm to the best of her ability.

Emily, Aria, and Spencer all shot each other looks full of unspoken understanding. And they all burst into laughter. No one had experienced as many "Hanna" moments as these three girls had throughout the many years they had all known each other. They would never tire of hearing her mix-ups. Correcting her became second nature to them. But sometimes they let Hanna live in her own little world. It always kept them on their toes anyways. The things she said should have been written in a quote book that could be sold to the public.

Hanna looked at the other girls with a slightly puzzled look on her face.

"You guys are weird. I don't know why I continue to bless you with my presence. You don't even let me in on the inside jokes sometimes." Hanna pouted.

"Hanna you're right, and we're all sorry, I'm sure. But you're the one telling the jokes. You just don't even realize it sometimes." Emily reassured Hanna.

"Oh. Really? Damn, well with how much you guys laugh I could totally be the next Ellen Degeneres."

"No way, I don't need any more competition Han. You'd be a tough match. I need all the girls looking my way, not yours." Emily joked.

"That's right Em, I've got brains and a hot bod. You better believe I'd be your competition with the ladies."

"Body Hanna, you've got a hot body. Not bod. Use proper English for the sake of what's left of my sanity. Please."

"See? Even Spencer agrees." Hanna said happily.

Emily and Aria chuckled in amusement at this last statement while Spencer wore a face full of irritation.

"Wow, well I'll let you three continue to enjoy this rather enthralling conversation. I, on the other hand, am excusing myself from the table. I need to make a phone call."

"Oh, is that what you call it these days?" Spencer asked.

Aria glared at Spencer before resting her hand on Emily's shoulder and telling her,

"Good luck with this mystery girl."

Emily laughed and shook her head before calling to Aria as she started to walk away from the table and said,

"There is no girl! Spencer is in a state of delusion!"

With her back still turned to Emily Aria raised her right arm up and made a shooing motion with her hand.

Emily could tell Aria knew she was bluffing. Emily's friends knew her too well. But she'd still put up a front. She didn't want anyone to know how hard she'd already fallen for this girl before she knew if her feelings could even be acted on and hopefully, maybe even returned. Until she was sure of that, she'd deny anything about being the slightest bit infatuated with Paige.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Hey everyone, I very much apologize for how much time has gone by since the last time I updated. Thanks for being patient. I hope you like the new chapter. I know people keep waiting for a kiss to happen, I promise, it's coming. Just keep enjoying the ride, I promise it will be worth the wait. **_

_**More to come a lot sooner than this one did. :)**_

_**Hello to my new followers!**_

* * *

Paige lost track of the time and before she knew it she had less than five minutes to make it all the way to the complete opposite side of the building. It would be nearly impossible with the amount of people that were guaranteed to be in her way.

Quickly removing her partially submerged legs from the pool she hopped up and quickly dried them off with the towel she had been sitting on. She rolled her pants down to normal length and put her socks back on as fast as possible while still managing to stay upright. Jamming her feet into her black Chuck Taylors and running over to where she had placed her bag on the bleachers, she grabbed hold of one of the straps of her bag and threw it awkwardly over her shoulder. She didn't have time to put her towel away so she took it with her.

"Shit, shit, shit. It's going to be a miracle if I get there in time." Paige breathed out as she pushed her way through the double doors leading her away from the pool.

Walking as fast as she could without breaking into an actual jog she clumsily rounded the hallway corner and barely missed bumping into an older man, who she assumed was a teacher.

"Slow down there young lady! I don't need another hip replacement." He shouted as she continued her race against the clock to her next class.

"Sorry, sir." She called back to him instinctually. She wasn't sure she would have even felt bad if she actually bumped into him. She was too scatterbrained.

Taking another sharp turn down the final stretch of hallway, which would eventually lead to her anatomy and physiology class, she had managed to bump into someone who appeared to have been in a rush coming from the opposite direction.

"Ooomff."

"Uuugh."

Emily hit the ground hard. Her backpack had slipped out of her hands and she lay sprawled out on the floor looking up at the ceiling with a newfound weight lying across her body. It didn't take much force to knock her off balance. She had been in the process of putting one of her binders away that she hadn't even bothered to look where she was going. Someone walking much faster than her had slammed right into her.

It happened so fast once Paige had rounded the corner that the next thing she knew, she had fallen forward to the ground on top of the person she collided into.

"I'll be feeling that tomorrow." Emily managed to groan out.

_Emily?_

Paige pushed her weight up on her hands and looked down. She was lying directly on top of Emily.

_Oh my god. _

Her face turned a bright shade of pink and she lost any ability to speak the moment she made eye contact with the girl she had managed to pin down in the midst of her fall.

In another place and in a much different situation, this was exactly what Paige had fantasized about. But as soon as the realization hit that she was still awkwardly on top of the girl she couldn't stop thinking about, and was still maintaining eye contact with her, she quickly pushed herself up off the ground and came to a kneeling position at the end of Emily's feet.

As Paige removed herself from Emily, Emily began to prop herself up on her elbows.

"Ha. Hey, Paige. What a coincidence running into you like this. I was just thinking about you."

"Emily I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. Shit. Are you hurt? Oh geez, did I hurt you? I'm so sorry. I was in such a rush to get to my next class. I shouldn't have been walking so fast."

Emily had managed to sit up completely by now.

"Ha, yeah, I'd uh, I'd say you managed to sweep me right off my feet."

_Wow, did I really just say that? Real cheesy Em._

"I'm so sorry. It sounded like you fell hard and your papers are all over the floor again. God, I'm such a klutz."

Paige was so flustered she didn't pick up on Emily's jokes. Emily was glad.

"Ha, don't worry about it. I'd rather it have been you then some football jock that probably would have caused an actual injury of sorts. That would have felt like running into a brick wall, for sure."

Emily shifted forward onto her knees and was now positioned directly in front of Paige. She started to collect her papers in a messy pile and reached for her bag.

Paige was helping to grab some of the few that surrounded her and handed them to Emily.

Emily reached out to grab them and purposely made sure to not make contact with Paige's hand this time.

She noticed Paige's swim towel on the ground at that point.

"Get a few laps in during lunch today? You must be really dedicated."

"Huh?"

_How'd she know I was at the pool? _

"Your towel, I just assumed."

"Oh. Yeah, no I didn't swim, I just decided to eat by the pool today. Needed to be alone for a bit. I've been a little overwhelmed being back in public school. I forgot how socially stimulating it is. It forces me to be around people and talk to people. People who I don't exactly want to interact with, if I could help it."

Emily stopped shuffling her papers.

"Oh, I see."

Paige noticed a sudden change in Emily's demeanor and realized that what she just said could have been completely misinterpreted as being directed at Emily.

_Shit._

Emily gave up on organizing her papers neatly and stuffed them into her bag as quickly as possible.

"So, uh, Paige. Um, sorry for running into you again. I'll have to pay better attention next time I turn a corner."

Emily stood up and Paige followed her lead taking a stand as well.

"Look, I'm sorry for knocking you over and I—"

"I need to get to my next class, you should too, but I'll see you later, okay?" Emily cut Paige off.

Paige folded her arms, it was something she did out of habit when she felt as though she was in an awkward situation or she was unsure. Maybe a nervous habit. She didn't really know. But it gave her a sense of comfort, even if it was just the littlest bit.

"Oh right, yeah. Okay." Paige responded.

Emily gave Paige a small polite smile, adjusted her bag on her shoulder, and continued down the hallway her to class.

Paige watched as Emily continued to walk away, increasing the distance between the two of them.

_Awesome Paige, why don't you think before you talk sometimes? I'm such an idiot. _

Emily wasn't sure if Paige was dropping a hint about their interactions or not. But a large part of her felt like Paige was and that had hurt her a tiny bit.

_Maybe I am trying too hard to force something between us._

She didn't want to read into Paige's words too much, but Paige did seem to be acting a bit distant since the history assignment fiasco that morning. If they hadn't ran right into each other, Emily wasn't so sure Paige would have said anything to her until their next class together, if then.

So, Emily decided to cut Paige off midsentence and left as fast as possible. It was more of a panic response than anything. She didn't want Paige to see her vulnerable. They had classes together and still had to get through a swim season; tension between the two of them wasn't an option.

Paige had thought about following after Emily, to clarify what she meant, but she didn't want to be late to class either and figured she would just catch her in their next class together or at practice.

Letting out a huge sigh, Paige gathered up her belongings and absentmindedly made her way to her next class.

She was thankful she'd have at least 50 minutes to rehearse what she was going to say to Emily the next time they met. She wanted to fix her mistake.

The door screeched as Paige pulled open the locker room door. She realized it'd always be a dead giveaway whenever anyone entered or exited the girl's locker room. She wondered if it would still make that same noise if she opened it up slower. It screamed out like it was in agony. Would it scream just as loud if she opened it up slowly, little by little? Probably not. It's voice would be dwindled down into a hushed whisper. This was probably something she'd experiment with later, maybe when she knew no one would even notice her do such a strange thing. Paige made a mental note and added it to her list of things to do.

Paige noticed that Emily's bag was already sitting on the ground by her swim locker. She must have already dressed down.

While she was somewhat relieved that she had managed to avoid the awkwardness of having to change next to Emily, she had hoped that she would be able to catch Emily before the start of class. Depending on what they were doing today, she might not get a chance to clear the air between them until swim practice.

Emily sat in the bleachers waiting for roll to be taken so she could get on with her workout. She needed to burn off some steam and she was getting antsy. She just wanted to run. Running was second best to swimming when it came to clearing her head.

She reached up to tighten her ponytail and then she noticed out of the corner of her eye, a girl making her way up the bleacher steps and turning into the same aisle Emily was sitting near. It was Paige.

Paige wasn't a fan of bleachers. She always managed to slip or trip as she maneuvered her way up and down them. She was silently chanting over and over in her head _don't fall, don't fall, please don't fall. _She finally made it safely to her destination and took a seat next to Emily.

"Hey."

"Hi, Paige." Emily greeted Paige, but left her gaze on the shiny gym floor. She figured it must have been refinished over the break.

"Look, Emily, I just wanted to say that-"

"Alright listen up this is athletic conditioning, if you aren't in athletic conditioning then now is the time to figure out where you are meant to be for this class period. I'm going to call roll and then today you are to complete your own workouts. The weight room is open and the upstairs track is available to us for the class period as well. Okay, so I'm just going to go down the list, Rebecca Arnolds?"

"Emily?"

Emily shifted her gaze to Paige.

"What I said earlier. It wasn't at all directed towards you. I hope you know that. I don't feel like I'm forced to talk to you or spend time with you. I should have clarified. And when you walked away all of a sudden I realized that maybe it sounded like I was telling you-"

"Emily Fields?"

"Here."

"—telling you that I was overwhelmed by you or something."

"Paige, it's okay. I didn't really know what you meant. I suppose I might have thought you were hinting about me, but thanks for clarifying."

Paige was tugging nervously at the end of her tee-shirt and started to grip the small amount of material she had in her right fist tightly.

"You see, I don't always think about the things I say before I say them. In fact, I actually scripted out in my head what I was going to say to you the next time I saw you, so I would get it right and well, it still wasn't perfect. But I promise that I'll try harder to think about things, before I let my words slip."

"You shouldn't have to worry about speaking your mind Paige, not to me. I'm probably one of the least judgmental people you'll ever come across. I suppose I should apologize for taking off so soon earlier, I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself. I made an assumption. But in all honesty, if earlier was an example of how careless you get when you let words slip from your mouth, then you have nothing to worry about with me. It'll take a lot more than a confession of being overwhelmed by personal interactions with people to scare me away, even if I thought you meant me. I need to learn to not make assumptions. So I apologize for that. And on a side note, I think you did a fantastic job nailing your lines earlier. I felt raw emotion and it was totally believable."

"Oh my gosh, shut up. That's really embarrassing. See? I shouldn't have told you I planned out exactly what I was going to say to you. "

Paige elbowed Emily lightly in the side.

"Hey, I was just speaking my mind." Emily cracked a smile at Paige.

Paige shook her head.

"Paige McCullers?"

"Here."

"Oh nice one Emily, keep cracking jokes. Really, you should become a comedian. You'd be really successful especially in the comedic art of smartass or sarcasm, whichever term you prefer."

"Woah, there is a very fine line between coming off as smartass and sarcastic. It's very fine, as I stated. But it's definitely there. The terms are not interchangeable."

"I disagree."

"No, see, I think you are sarcastic. I'm willing to admit I'm a smartass. They are different."

"No, I really think they are the same. Smartass and sarcasm tend to come off the same way. The terms are definitely interchangeable. I think sarcasm is just a nicer way of saying smartass. It's the less offensive way of saying smartass."

"Someone can be sarcastic and be a smartass, but if you are a smartass you don't have to be sarcastic."

Paige wrinkled her brow in confusion.

"You just confused the hell out of me and I can't believe we have continued to debate about this for so long. Let's just agree that I'm right and you're wrong."

"I have a better idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Let's race. Winner is right, loser is wrong."

"Race? What kind of race?"

"I'm going up top to the indoor track. I was going to run today for my workout and you are more than welcome to join me, but I figured we could race because it's obvious both of us are stubborn and won't rest our cases."

"Why do you seem to be obsessed with racing? You must really think you're the fastest person on this planet at everything you do."

"I am."

Emily stood up and started stepping her way down the bleacher seats.

She looked back at Paige and asked "Are we racing, or what?"

"Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses."

Paige carefully made her way down the bleachers following Emily from behind.

_Please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall._

Paige's feet met the hardwood floor of the gym and she considered this to be a small success for the day. The fact that she didn't fall on her way up or down the bleachers was a victory for her.

Emily continued to walk out of the gym and towards a door that led to a stairwell.

Paige assumed it led up to the track.

_I've never been so happy in my life before that I'm an avid runner when I'm not swimming. Emily is in for a rude awakening. I'm right, she's wrong._

"Come on slowpoke."

"Hey, are we racing yet?"

"Obviously not, because I would have won already at the rate you move."

"Smartass" Paige let slip under her breath.

"What was that?" Emily asked.

"A clue that you need to get your hearing aids checked."

"Oooh nice one."

"Now I have a question for you."

"Okay."

"In your opinion, because they are separate, was I being sarcastic or a smartass?" Paige asked.

"A sarcastic smartass."

Paige laughed and shook her head in amusement. She was looking forward to beating Emily at her own game. She ran almost as much as she swam.

Both of the girls climbed the two flights of stairs with ease and found themselves at the door that led to the track.

They reached for the handle simultaneously and Paige stopped her arm from reaching out totally. Emily beat her to the door handle. She turned the handle downward and then pulled the door open towards her.

"You can go first, considering you'll be seeing second place next."

"Keeping digging that hole Emily, soon you won't be able to climb your way out of it and you'll be asking for help from me and I might just refuse, then you'll be shit out of luck."

Paige stepped through the entrance to the track.

Emily couldn't help, but laugh. She was getting great enjoyment out of the fact that she could joke with Paige and Paige was able to hold her own. It kept her on her toes and it made their interactions interesting when they could pick up on each other's humor.

Emily followed, allowing the door to close behind them.

"Alright, one lap, first person to cross this line-"

Emily pointed to the white solid line that the down at their feet.

"- wins and is therefore right."

"How many laps on this track is equal to a mile?" Paige noticed the track was considerably small and one lap was going to be like a walk in the park.

"About ten, if I remember correctly."

"HHmm, okay. So, like you said, first person to cross this line, after just one lap wins?"

"Yes."

"You don't want to state any other rules or anything?"

"Nope, just a simple sprint back to this line."

"Okaaay."

"On the count of three." Emily stated.

"One-" Emily counted.

Paige planted her right foot in front of her and hunched forward a bit. She was ready to sprint her way to her second victory of the day. Emily had already taken her ready stance.

"Two-"

Paige took a deep breath and clenched her fists.

Emily was relaxed.

"Three." Both girls stated together.

And they were off in a full sprint down the straightaway about to take the first turn. Paige noticed that Emily was a pretty good match for her. This wasn't going to be as easy as she had expected. Making their way around the first turn they were already started on the next straightaway. She needed to pick her pace up.

Emily couldn't believe that Paige was keeping up with her. She began to lengthen her stride and pulled slightly ahead of Paige. They were just about to take the last turn.

Paige noticed Emily pull ahead and decided to play dirty.

"Oh ouch, ouch, I think I pulled something." She called out to Emily.

Emily heard Paige call after her and she slowed down to turn around and see what had happened. As soon as she turned her head Paige rushed right past her.

_Oh, you've got to be kidding me. This girl._

Emily ran after her, but it was too late. By the time she has closed in on the other girl, Paige had just crossed the white line. She had won the race.

Emily slowed to a jog and then stopped in place leaving her hands on her hips and staring at Paige in shock and awe.

"What? You never specified that it had to be a clean race. I was debating about tripping you or tricking you. I figured tricking you would cause less injury." Paige confessed.

"You totally cheated. So not cool."

Paige smiled sweetly at Emily had said, "I didn't cheat. You said winner was the first person to cross the line. You never said specified at which manner the winner was able to cross the white line. I even made sure I gave you a chance to state any other rules to follow."

Emily shook her head. She was still in disbelief.

"I don't even know what to say right now. You tricked me because you saw I was going to win. I'm not even mad. I didn't think you had that in you. Paige McCullers, you are not the girl I thought you were."

"I don't know if I should say sorry or do a victory dance. I'm really conflicted right now."

"Are you serious?" Emily burst into laughter.

Emily's laughter was contagious and Paige soon found herself laughing as well. Once they both settled and it was silent once more, Emily stated one word in the most serious voice she would manage.

"Run."

"Huh?" Paige asked as confusion spread across her face.

"I said run."

Paige started to take a few steps back realizing that Emily was approaching her with a face that could easily be compared to one that a predator would have when stalking its prey.

"Oh shit. No, Emily please. I'm sorry. It was meant to be a joke. You win. You're right. Please."

Emily darted towards Paige and Paige spun around and took off in a full sprint hoping it would be enough to evade Emily.

Paige giggled and screamed out to Emily, "No, no, no. Please I was just trying to be funny. We can have a re-do! I swear I won't cheat this time."

Emily called back, "Keep running because you won't like what happens when I catch up."

_Shit._

Paige ran with everything she had in her. She couldn't keep this pace up for long so she thought of an escape plan. She took the second turn at this point, almost back to where they started and eyed the door that they both came through to get up to the track.

_Bingo._

Emily was closing in on Paige, she didn't really have anything in mind for when she actually caught up to the girl, but she figured Paige was thinking a number of possibilities and that was enough for her. Often time's people think of the worst when left to their own imagination.

Paige acted as though she was going to continue down the straightaway, but quickly diverted her path to the door. She had hoped maybe this threw Emily off and gave her a little bit more of a lead.

"Oh nice one Paige." Emily called after her.

A laugh escaped Paige's lips as her hands met the door and pushed it open. She shuffled down the stairs, skipping some of them by two's. She was really pushing her luck.

She heard the door open a second time and she felt panicked as she continued to make her way down the stairs. The last few steps were in sight. But she must have misjudged her footing because she skipped one too many steps and at the speed she was hurrying down them, her knees buckled and she fell to the ground. Paige threw her hands out to catch her fall and ended up rolling over onto her back and was overcome with laughter.

"Paige?" Emily called out.

"Ahahahaha-yeaaah-haha." Paige was still rolling around on the ground, she was on her side and now hugging her stomach still working through bursts of laughter.

Emily appeared at the top of the flight of stairs that Paige was now laying at the bottom of.

"Oh crap. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Emily asked.

Paige was still giggling.

Emily ran down the stairs and kneeled in front of Paige. She placed one hand on the ground in front of Paige and the other on Paige's hip and asked a second time, "Paige? Are you okay?"

Paige continued to laugh and when she managed to compose herself, she turned her head and looked up at Emily.

"Yeah. I'm alright. I knew I was testing my luck running down those stairs so fast. I misjudged the distance to the ground when I took my last step, my legs gave in. I'm alright. Karma's a bitch."

Relieved that Paige wasn't hurt, and amused that Paige was still throwing out jokes; Emily let out a small laugh and proceeded to take a seat next to Paige. Her one hand was still resting on Paige's hip.

Emily grew serious, "I thought you were hurt; don't scare me like that again. Coach has high hopes for you this season; I have high hopes for you this season. I would have felt horrible if you got seriously hurt."

Noticing that Emily seemed genuinely concerned Paige started to sit up and grabbed hold of the hand Emily had placed on her hip and squeezed it lightly.

"Hey, Emily. It's okay, I'm fine. I might have a few more bruises added to the few I got earlier from running you down in the hallway, but I'm good. It's not your fault. I'm a klutz remember?"

Emily looked at Paige with concerned eyes and then directed her attention to their hands. Paige still had hold of her hand. She liked how their hands looked together. It felt right.

Paige followed Emily's gaze and slowly retracted her hand from Emily's.

"We should probably get back to our workout." Paige said.

Emily sighed.

She would have been content to sit with Paige like that forever.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Emily agreed while bringing her eyes back up to meet Paige's warm brown eyes.

There was something so telling about Paige's eyes. Emily couldn't quite pinpoint it. It was like Paige's eyes said one thing but the rest of her said something completely different. Her body language and even her words conflicted with her eyes. What was Paige hiding?

Paige stood up and offered both of her hands to Emily to help her up. Emily looked at Paige's hands and accepted the offer by placing both her hands in Paige's and pulling herself up to a standing position.

When she stood she was standing face to face with Paige and found herself admiring Paige's lips once again.

The two were still holding hands.

"Emily?" Paige asked as she found her eyes locked onto Emily's lips.

"Yeah?"

"I-" Suddenly the upstairs stairwell door was thrown open. The voices of two boys were heard arguing about the scores of a basketball game as they came stomping down the first set of stairs.

Both girls, with flushed faces, broke apart. Emily started for the stairs and Paige went towards the door leading out to the hallway.

Paige rushed down the hallway and into the weight room. She needed a distraction. She went for the stationary bike.

_I almost kissed her. What the hell Paige? You can't just kiss a girl you barely know. A girl who also appears to have a boyfriend. Don't ruin the only friendship you have right now._

Emily made her way slowly back up the stairs out to the track. She was still processing what almost happened.

_Run, I just need to run. I almost kissed her. That would have been bad. I don't want to scare her away._

Emily took off into a sprint, when her muscles began to ache and her lungs felt like they would burst, she settled into a comfortable pace and continued to circle her way around the track.

Paige started to pedal faster. Her legs started to burn and she was starting to break a sweat. She wished that the bike was actually taking her somewhere. Somewhere far away. As time went on, she was finding it harder and harder to maintain self control around Emily. She didn't like how out of control of her own words and actions were becoming with just the very presence of Emily.

Emily wasn't sure what lap she was on, she had lost count a while ago. She took a look at the clock and realized that class had been over for five minutes already. She was so focused on her own thoughts that she didn't even recall hearing the bell to signal the end of the last period of the day.

_I just need to act like nothing happened. Because it didn't. But would anything have happened, if those guys never interrupted the moment? What was Paige going to tell me?_


	12. Chapter 12

_**Hey all, I'm sorry for how untimely my updates have been, life can get a little overwhelming sometimes, you know? I know I sound like a broken record every time I tell you that these chapters don't end where I want them to. I just wasn't feeling some of what I wrote quite enough to post it yet.**_

_**I'm really trying not to screw up this moment that I have in my head between the two of them, and I know I'll get it right when I'm in the right frame of mind when I write it. But I promise it'll be within the next two updates after this one. Thank you for hanging in there with me. School is starting up again for me tomorrow unfortunately, but I hope to do a better job at taking time to write more this term. **_

_**This update is dedicated to one or two even possible three? persistent Anons on tumblr who have been without a doubt very encouraging about updating this story. Until next time, I hope this doesn't disappoint. :/**_

* * *

Paige stood in front of the refrigerator with the double doors cracked wide open for longer than she knew she should. Her mom always nagged her whenever she caught Paige doing this because she didn't have a clear idea of what she was looking for.

"You're letting all the cold air out." She would always say when catching Paige in the act.

Paige let out a sigh when she realized there wasn't anything in the fridge catching her interest. She closed the doors and turned her attention to the fruit basket that sat in the middle of the kitchen table. She grabbed for the red apple that sat at the very top of the pile of assorted fruit. Taking a look at her wrist watch she saw that swim practice was going to be in less than half an hour.

"Mom?" Paige called out, hoping her voice rang loud enough throughout the house so she wouldn't have to call out again.

She waited and listened for a few seconds. The house was quiet.

_Maybe she's up in her room._

Taking a bite out of her apple, Paige made her way down the hallway and stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Mom?" She called out a second time.

"Yes, hun?" Her mom called back, shortly before showing herself at the top of the stairs.

_Oh thank god, I really didn't want to climb those stairs after that bike workout._

"Practice is at 5:30 remember? It's 5:00 right now. We need to leave. Being on time would be nice for once."

"Oh right. Okay, yeah. Go grab your things; I'll meet you in the car."

Paige had her head leaned up against the cool car window. She had forgotten her headphones at home in her rush to jump in the car. She figured if she got to the school early enough she could avoid an Emily interaction until after practice, and maybe even then, she could avoid one altogether until tomorrow when they had their first class together.

"So how was your first day? Meet any friends? I meant to ask when I picked you up earlier, but you know how those inconvenient work calls go. Thank goodness for Bluetooth right?"

_I don't want to talk about today. I'd like to block it out. Maybe I should just go back to homeschooling. But I can't tell her that.._

"Well, I survived. So I guess that means it wasn't a total nightmare."

"I think it would really be a great idea for you to try and meet a good group of friends. It's not healthy keeping so closed off to the idea of socializing with people. What did Dr. Thorpe suggest? Did she think it was a good idea for you to meet people too?"

Dr. Thorpe was Paige's therapist. She'd been going to see her since her incident. She was reluctant, at first, to talk to her about anything. The first few sessions Paige would only answer "yes" or "no" or stare off blankly when she was asked a question requiring an answer with more than two or three words. Her parents insisted that it would be a good idea for her to see her. They hoped it would help giving her someone to talk so when she often refused to talk to them. Not that they were ever around for her to talk to, and when they were, they were preoccupied.

"Yeah, something like that."

It was quiet for a few minutes and then Paige's mom broke the silence once more asking,

"Did you meet anyone today? Talk to anyone?"

"There was this one girl. She's on the swim team with me, that's how we met." Paige replied.

"So this girl, what's her name?"

"Emily."

"Is she nice?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Would you care to maybe string more than two or three words together at once? I know you can form sentences just fine."

Paige let out a frustrated sigh. She just wanted to be out of the car already. It annoyed her when her mom would randomly take the time to take an interest in her. It always seemed forced or like her mom felt obligated. If she made more of an effort to talk to Paige all the time, and maybe ignore a few work calls every so often, it would be different.

"I met Emily at the practice I was late to because of the flat tire. She is one of the captains of the team and she is a senior. Yes, she's nice. We actually have some classes together too."

"I'm really glad to hear that. Maybe you should invite her over sometime." Paige's mom suggested.

"Yeah, maybe."

Paige thought back to the night Emily had dropped Mark's goggles off.

_Would there be any other nights spent together?_

"Is the school a better fit for you than your old one? I know the swim program doesn't compare to Jefferson's, but do you like the school?"

"Yeah, it's alright. Better than being home 24/7."

Paige wasn't sure if it really was better than being home all the time. She didn't know how she felt. Everything was so confusing, a little bit overwhelming, was she jumping ahead of herself?

Paige's mom pulled up to the front of the high school. Paige would finally be able to escape the 20 questions game her mom was playing.

"So practice is over at 7:00, see you then?" Paige asked.

"Right, 7:00 I'll be here, but text me when you are changing into your street clothes okay?"

_She's going to forget._

"Okay. Bye mom."

Paige hopped out of the stationary car and just when she was about to shut the door closed her mom said,

"I love you hun."

Paige replied with, "you too" without hesitation, like it was a reflex, just before slamming the door shut.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd told anyone the exact three words "I love you". Was it sad that she didn't even tell her parents she loved them? Did she anymore? She didn't know. She didn't feel like they loved her.

Emily sat in her car. The clock on her dashboard read 5:30. She was always early to practice, being a captain meant she had to set a good example and always needed to be on time. She usually showed up half an hour early. But not today. Today, she was going to be a little late, coach wouldn't care. She had pushed herself a bit too hard running earlier. This practice was going to be hell for her. Her legs were fatigued. But besides her body screaming at her, she still didn't know how to go about facing Paige. She thought it would be better to avoid an awkward forced conversation until they had to see each other throughout the day tomorrow. Having multiple classes together and practice made it nearly impossible to avoid the girl. She didn't really want to avoid her. But she didn't know what to do. Avoiding her seemed like the best option, for now.

_Am I being immature about this? I mean, nothing happened. But it sure as hell seemed like it would have. Is Paige even gay? I can't get a clear enough read on the girl. _

A few songs on the radio later and the clock read that it was just after 5:45.

_Well, it's now or never._

Emily pushed open her car door, threw her swim bag over her shoulder, and locked her car. Crossing her arms so they were hugging her body tightly, she walked briskly to the side gym entrance.

Paige took her place on the starting block. Today coach had them working on sprints. Short bursts of every bit of power and energy they could muster. Then she mentioned finishing out practice with easier paced laps. It would be their last practice that consisted of conditioning. Coach would post the final list of the relay teams and individual events at the end of the following practice.

"Give it your all." Coach had said right before practice had started.

Emily wasn't anywhere to be found. Paige was trying her best to not think about her. Where she might be. Why she wasn't at practice yet.

_Shit._

She was already letting her mind wander again.

_Focus Paige._

Paige waited for the whistle to signal her to push off. A few moments passed and now she was anticipating the whistle.

_Weird._

It had been longer than the intervals they had been repeating for the last twenty minutes. She lifted her head up to look at Coach Fulton. It was at that moment that Paige knew exactly why the whistle hadn't gone off yet. Coach Fulton's attention was now directed to a girl she seemed to be having a conversation with. Emily had finally made an appearance. About twenty minutes late to practice, but she seemed fine. She hadn't disappeared off the face of the planet like Paige might have feared and coach didn't look mad.

Paige, of course, relaxed and allowed her thoughts to travel again.

Paige couldn't help but admire Emily's natural beautiful from the complete opposite side of the pool. Her perfectly tanned skin, amazingly toned body, killer smile, and a genuine one of a kind laugh that Paige swore she could almost hear from where she stood on the block. She already had the sound memorized. Even though Emily was too far away for her to see them, Paige couldn't forget about her dark brown eyes. Anyone could get easily lost in them. Especially Paige.

Just then the whistle blew without any forewarning. It took Paige by complete surprise and she didn't leave the block with the rest of the girls in the other lanes. They were already a few strokes in by the time she leapt off the block and joined them in the water.

Slicing through the water effortlessly, she cut it with all she had. She kicked her legs with everything she could muster. She was going to catch up even if it killed her. Kicking and stroking. It was just her and the water. Propelling herself forward she just wanted to get to the wall. She kicked and she stroked, until she made it to the wall at such an extreme force she practically smacked her head against the tile.

_Whew, close call. Nice save._

She didn't know what place she came in. She didn't care. Paige gripped the wall and pulled off her goggles. Lifting herself out of the water just in time to hear her name being called.

"Paige. Can I see you for a minute?" Coach Fulton asked.

_Ah, crap._

Goggles in hand, walking her way over to where Coach Fulton was standing, Paige noticed Emily was now walking to the complete opposite length of the pool. More than likely getting ready to join in on the exercise.

Paige watched Emily walk away longer than she was willing to admit and of course Emily took a look over her shoulder at the exact same moment Paige had found herself staring at Emily's butt.

_Shit._

Paige diverted her gaze immediately.

Emily found interest in catching Paige in what seemed like a moment of curiosity, or was it admiration?

_Was she checking out my ass? _

Emily turned her head back around and caught herself smiling to herself. She knew she couldn't avoid Paige forever. Showing up late to practice was a decision she made to give Paige some space. It was an attempt to not make things more awkward between the two of them.

She didn't want to avoid her forever. Emily didn't want to admit it, but she'd take any opportunity given to her even just to be in the same room as Paige. It was a game of push and pull with Paige. One that was starting to wear on Emily. Maybe she just needed to go for it, pull her in and follow through for once on her impulses.

_What's the worst that could happen?_

Paige continued walking towards Coach Fulton and was bracing herself for a scolding. She knew she shouldn't have allowed herself to be so easily distracted.

_It was all Emily's fault. Can I blame her?_

"Yeah Coach?" Paige asked nervously.

"How in the world did you manage to beat every single girl to the wall when you gave them a fairly generous head start?"

Paige was relieved, but her face still flushed red with embarrassment. It was partially from the realization Emily caught her checking her out and because Coach had witnessed her moment of utter distraction.

She decided that it needed to be less obvious the next time she found herself distracted because of all things Emily.

"Oh. Umm, I'm not sure. I just knew I needed to catch up."

"Well, nice job. You did more than catch up. You're a really strong swimmer Paige, I have a feeling this is going to be a very successful season for you, but Paige?"

"Yes?"

"Stay focused on the exercises next time. No more zoning out."

"It won't happen again. I'm sorry."

Paige knew she couldn't say for absolute certain it wouldn't happen again. Emily was a distraction. They were on the swim team together and Paige was bound to zone out again because of Emily. It was inevitable.

Practice was finally over. Emily managed to avoid Paige for the remainder of practice, which had been damn near impossible, but Emily figured Paige was trying to avoid her just as much and both of their efforts had succeeded.

When the end of practice whistle blew and coach had reminded them practice would start immediately after school tomorrow, everyone filed into the locker room. Emily decided to busy herself in the office, organizing the contact cards everyone had handed back in at the beginning of practice that she had missed. She figured this would allow Paige enough time to get to her locker, change, and leave before Emily finished with the cards.

When Emily finally emerged from the office, the locker room was empty and the only sound she could hear was the dripping of water from the third shower stall to the right. She knew exactly which one it was because it had leaked like that since she was on the swim team as a freshman. It amazed her that it still hadn't been fixed to this day, something as simple as a small leak. But at the same time, the locker room just wouldn't be the same to her anymore if one day it happened to stop dripping at its three second intervals.

Drip, one-two-three, drip, one-two-three, drip, one-two-three, drip.

There was something soothing about it to her. Some days after tough practice she'd sit in the locker room by herself, close her eyes, and just listen to the drops of water splatter to the tile floor. It helped clear her head. She'd focus solely on the drops of water and she'd forget about anything else that was clouding her head at the time. It acted as a temporary weight being lifted off her shoulders, but after a few minutes passed, she'd come back to reality and realize that she couldn't escape it forever through three second interval drops of water.

Water was her safety. Whether it was swimming in the pool, going to the beach, taking a prolonged shower, getting caught in the rain or just listening to a minor leak from a shower head faucet, water made her feel safe, and water set her free. She'd opt to live in water if she could. When she was a little girl she wanted to grow up to be a mermaid, but it wasn't until she was older that she realized that would never happen. So in her mind, competitive swimming was as close as it got to living up to her dreams of being a mermaid and living in the water.

Emily walked back to the third shower stall to the right and turned the dripping faucet completely on. The water would be the perfect temperature by the time she went to grab her shower towel and return for a relaxing hot shower before she drove home and faced the overwhelming amount of homework she had to complete by tonight.

With music blasting through her ear buds and her hoodie pulled up over her head Emily was blocking out two things as she zoned out and made her way out to her car. Music blocked out any other sounds taking place around her and her pulled up hood blocked her peripheral vision, two things that would alert her if anyone was approaching her from the side, or from behind. This too was something her dad always warned her of when walking in the dark to her car. It gave someone the chance to take her by complete surprise, but tonight she decided to ignore his warnings. After all, she did park under the parking lot lamp so she was visible to anyone if they happened to look her way.

Swinging her bag around to the front of her she unzipped the side pouch and began to dig for her keys. Not being able to find them as fast as she had hoped she would, she dropped her bag to the ground and crouched down so there would be less weight to hold up as she searched for them. Turns out, for once, that she didn't put her keys in the side pocket of her bag, she had thrown them in with the rest of her belongings in the main compartment and they were hiding under her damp rolled up swim towel.

Standing up, just as she started to zip her bag up, she felt a tap on her shoulder and without taking much time to think Emily quickly swung around grabbing hold of the person's shoulders and swiftly swung her left leg behind the right knee cap of the stranger while pushing them backwards.

This caused their one leg to buckle and the added force from Emily pushing back knocked them off balance sending them down to the pavement where she wanted them. At that moment she was happy to have recalled some of her father's self defense teachings, but knew she probably executed it completely wrong.

She threw her hood back and ripped her ear buds from her ears just as she raised her voice asking,

"What the hell?!"

To her surprise she was now looking at a very shocked and speechless girl who was still lying sprawled out on her backside staring at Emily with slight fear in her eyes.

"Oh my god. Paige. I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was you. I couldn't see and my music was too loud and shit, did I hurt you? We need to stop running into each other like this I could have seriously hurt you. Are you okay? Did you hit your head?"

Paige sat up with her legs still stretched out in front of her.

Emily bent down and started looking over and running her hands up and down Paige's limbs and body to check for any sign of injury, no matter how minor.

Paige wasn't sure what to say. She was still trying to figure out how she ended up on the ground. It happened so fast and she wasn't expecting Emily to push her. She didn't even have time to cushion her fall.

"Emily stop."

By this point Emily had hold of Paige's right arm and was in the process of gently turning it over so her palm was face up. A tiny rock had lodged itself almost directly in the middle of the palm of her hand and a few scrapes lined her lower part of the palm of her hand just where her wrist turned into her now injured hand. Emily looked up and met Paige's eyes with a look of concern and worry.

"No. You're hurt. I hurt you Paige."

"I just have a few scrapes; it's not that big of a deal. Trust me, I've been hurt worse. I'm fine. Please, just stop."

Emily now had a look of hurt all over her face and she slowly released Paige's hand allowing Paige to bring her arm closer to her own body.

_She hates me._

Was all Emily could think.

Paige picked the rock out of her hand and inspected the wound a little closer. It wasn't too deep, worst case was she'd have a tiny triangular shaped scar resting in the middle of the palm of her hand.

"Can I at least help you up?" Emily asked.

"It's fine. I can do it. My hands are bleeding a little bit now; I don't want to get blood on you."

"Oh. Right."

_Great, she's bleeding._

Emily stood and Paige followed shortly after.

With her left hand, which wasn't scraped as bad, Paige reached back and started to smooth out her hair, in the aftermath of the fall she had rested her head on the pavement for a few short moments and now it was a bit wet and tangled.

"Shit, you did hit your head didn't you? Paige, I'm so sorry I'd never hurt you on purpose I had no idea it was you and my dad taught me some self defense things awhile back and you took me by surprise when you tapped my shoulder and I freaked and—"

Emily was rambling. Paige thought it was cute but she needed to cut her off because she could tell Emily was upset. She knew Emily didn't mean to push her. Now she knew Emily hadn't heard her call her name or approach her from behind.

"Emily I'm fine. I didn't hit my head. I swear. I'm okay. I promise. Take a breath."

Emily stopped talking and looked back at Paige's hand. The one that was now down at her side. The one she'd touched and held numerous times before, mostly by chance. The one that had a rock lodged in it just moments ago and was now bleeding. All she wanted to do was hold Paige's hand, clean it up, and stop it from bleeding, but that's not what Paige wanted. So Emily respected that and started to look around on the ground for her car keys to distract herself.

Paige spotted them before Emily did so she walked over to where they were resting on the pavement, picked them up, and held them out to Emily.

Emily smiled softly and retrieved them from Paige's less injured left hand.

"Thanks." Emily said.

"No problem." Paige replied.

Emily turned back to her car, but just as she unlocked it and reached for the door handle she realized that Paige was still standing right there behind her probably staring at the back of her head as she was about to open her car door.

Emily released the door handle and turned back around to face Paige.

"Paige, what are you still doing here? Practice ended forty five minutes ago. Have you been out here by yourself that long?"

"Yeah, umm, I've just been over there-"

Paige pointed to the bench by the sidewalk in front of the school.

-waiting for my ride. I think it's safe to say my mom forgot when I needed to picked up. I can't reach either of my parents on their phones, which isn't a surprise, but I figured they'd realize eventually that I'm not home. At least I'd like to think they would."

Paige started to kick at the ground with her left foot. It was a nervous habit of hers. Emily staring at her right now made her nervous. But Emily staring at her at any point in time made her nervous. This wasn't new.

"Paige, why didn't call or text me?"

"It's not your responsibility to be my taxi service. Honestly, I figured everyone had taken off by now. I would never have you drive back here to come get me. But I saw you walking to your car and I called your name, but you didn't hear me and then I ended up on the ground. Which, now tells me that you could definitely kick my ass if it ever came to it and I was avoiding you earlier and I shouldn't have been I'm just—I'm sorry Emily. I can't explain why, just know I'm sorry. I've been acting dumb and I realize this and I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry about. I was avoiding you too, but for my own reasons. I should be apologizing a hundred times over to you. I didn't mean to push you. I mean I did, but only because I didn't know it was you and—"

Emily stopped herself from continuing to ramble. She took a deep breath and asked,

"Can I just give you a ride home? Please? That would make me feel a whole lot better about all of this."

"Yes, but only on one condition."

Emily's eyes narrowed as she responded with "Okay, and what would that be?"

"You need to teach me how to knock someone over flat of their back before they even have time to realize what the hell happened. Like seriously what was that? Are you secretly a black belt in karate or something?"

Emily started to laugh. Paige was joking with her again.

_This is a good thing right? _

"Okay fine. Well, I can try and no, my dad taught me basic self defense a while ago. I actually don't even know how I remembered it. I actually broke like a million of his rules tonight that I'm supposed to follow when I walk to my car alone at night. But seriously, I see you shivering from here will you just get in the car?"

"Wow, Emily Fields, such a bossy pants. Fine, I'll get in."

"Watch it; I can kick your ass. Remember?"

Paige laughed, grabbed her swim duffle and walked around to the passenger side of Emily's car.


End file.
